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Glenn West shovels off his driveway after a break in the storm Thursday. The storm left several inches of snow. West lives in the Town of Floyd.

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Polar chill with temperatures in single digits follows first snow

By Roger Mannon
Staff Writer

The first snow and the coldest weather of the winter hit Floyd County last week. But the area was spared some of the worst ravages of the storms that hit other parts of the country.
A mixture of frozen precipitation hit just before daylight on Thursday. Snow, followed by sleet and freezing rain, caused several traffic accidents and cancelled school.
According to Bob Beasley, at the Hillsville Residency of the Virginia Department of Transportation, it was “a spotty snow,” leaving about two inches in some places and up to four inches in others.
The sleet and freezing rain added about a ¼-inch crust and held down the depth of the snowfall.
A warm up on Friday helped melt some of the frozen precipitation. Then, the polar cold wave, which chilled the Midwest and Northeast, came through the area from Saturday night into Monday morning.
The weekend football playoffs in Foxborough, Massachusetts and Green Bay, Wisconsin were played in bitter cold. In Green Bay, the temperature was minus-8 and the wind chill factor was 30 degrees below zero.
Frances Conner, of Copper Hill, said “it was just cold, that’s all.” She saw a reading of 7 degrees Sunday morning.
“We had about three or four inches of snow, and its still there under the trees and in shady places.” Still, she did not mind the first significant snow of the season.
“I’d like to see some falling weather,” she said. “Our water level is low, and if we don’t have some wet weather, it will hurt the hay, the yards and the gardens next year.”
Chris Link of Farmer’s Supply said the cold snap generated a lot of business in cold weather products. “We’ve sold a ton of stuff.
“We sold heaters, insulation, and pipe for people whose lines froze and busted. We sold out of heating tape, but we’re getting in another order this week.”
He said the early morning reading was 6 degrees.
Gary and Carlotta Summers of Willis had a good answer to the cold: they planned to go south. Way south.
They were scheduled to leave Monday for a vacation trip to Panama, near the Equator. “When I looked at the thermometer Sunday, it was four-point-zero (the Summers have a digital thermometer). Panama is going to be a big change for us. Their forecast is for temperatures in the upper 80s.”