An intense upper low and associated surface low tracked from the Tennessee Valley across southwest Virginia and Delmarva region from the 26th into the 27th. A variety of winter weather accompanied the system beginning late Christmas night and continuing into the 26th. Precipitation commenced just before midnight on Christmas Day across southwest Virginia in the form of snow and sleet as a warm front was advancing northeast from the southeast states. Many areas across southwest Virginia, southeast West Virginia, and the mountains of northwest North Carolina experienced one to two inches of snow and sleet accumulation Christmas night and into the early morning hours of the 26th as a wedge of cold air backed southwestward along the spine of the Appalachians. Toward daybreak on the 26th, however, as warm air aloft spread into the area from the southwest on the heels of a strong low-level jet, the sleet and snow changed to freezing rain. Significant ice accumulations, up to 0.25 inch or more, were reported from the Greenbrier Valley, the Alleghany Highlands, and parts of the Southern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and nearby areas along the east facing slopes of the Blue Ridge.
Here are some of the snow, sleet, and freezing rain accumulations reported across southeast West Virginia as of the morning of December 26th.
Greenbrier county (Smoot) - 0.25 inch of ice accumulation,| (Auto) - 0.25 inch of ice accumulation, 3.5 inches of snow,|Monroe county (Sweet Springs) - 2.0 inches of snow.