Accumulating Snow to Start Early Thursday: Here's How Much

Get your snow shovels, sleds and groceries ready: The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch for Northern Virginia, beginning Wednesday at 7 p.m. and lasting until Thursday at 7 p.m.

(This is a new watch, different than the Winter Weather Advisory in effect until 10 p.m. Tuesday, expected to continue to bring sleet and freezing rain to the area late today and tonight.)

The new storm system is expected to deliver more accumulating snow to our area and is moving in from the Southwest, from the Tennessee Valley to the Mid-Atlantic and then pushing up to just south of New England, according to Kevin Witt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling.

When will it start snowing? And how much snow will we get?

Under this new watch, Northern Virginia will first see a ”little mix of rain and snow, beginning at about 9 p.m., on Wednesday,” said Witt.

The rain/snow mix is going to continue until about 6 a.m. on Thursday, he said, noting that the wintry mix will change over to snow Thursday morning at about 6 a.m.

Snow is expected to fall all day on Thursday and the Northern Virginia are is expected to see anywhere from 3 to 6 inches of snow before it stops falling Thursday night, Witt said.

“The real accumulation will be on Thursday and Thursday night,” he said. The snow on Thursday will be a “wet snow.”

High temperatures for the area will remain below freezing until Saturday; Saturday promises to be sunny with a high of 42 degrees, according to the NWS forecast.