West Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains Under Blizzard Warning

As if being in the path of Hurricane Sandy isn’t bad enough, the National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for 10 counties in the eastern part of West Virginia as the monster storm approaches.

So if you’re heading west trying to escape the storm, it’s best to avoid the Applachian Mountains through West Virginia, as you could get stuck in several feet of snow.

The blizzard warning begins at noon Monday and will stretch to Wednesday afternoon for Fayette, McDowell, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Preston, Raleigh, Randolph, Tucker, Webster and Wyoming counties.

The NEWS says two feet of heavy, wet snow is possible, which could bring tree limbs down. Snowshoe Mountain, a Pocahontas County ski resort, could get as much as 31 inches of snow, and lower elevations could get six inches.

The winds will also gust to near 50 miles per hour on the highest ridges and there will be whiteout conditions at some points. The rain that’s been falling all day today is changing over to snow, and some locations reportedly already have some accumulation.

The NWS is warning people in the blizzard warning area not to travel.