A classic eastern U.S. cold air wedge set up began to evolve from December 7th into December 8th as a large 1038mb Canadian surface high, anchored across eastern Pennsylvania and eastern New York wedged southwestward along the east side of the Appalachians down through Virginia into Georgia. Meanwhile, a cold front was stalled along the southeast U.S. coast. In the upper-levels of the atmosphere a deep western U.S. trough was slowly shifting eastward into the central U.S. Surface low pressure was tracking along the stalled southeast U.S. frontal boundary. This feature combined with the slowly eastward tracking upper-level trough provided for the development of widespread overrunning precipitation into the cold air mass where temperatures hovered in the upper 20s and lower 30s. Given that a layer of warmer air with temperatures above freezing was present just 3000 to 4000 feet above the surface, precipitation fell largely in the cold air at the surface as a wintry mix of freezing rain and sleet, with some snow in the northern portions and higher elevations of the Blacksburg County Warning Area (CWA). This was a near perfect cold air damming/wedge pattern for the mid-Atlantic region and as such proved to be so in terms of winter weather. Freezing rain with ice accumulations ranging from 1/4 to 1/2 inch was widespread across southeastern West Virginia. Significant ice accumulations of 1/4 to 1/2 inch were reported from many areas of the four counties in southeast West Virginia within the Blacksburg CWA. Warm temperatures in the days leading up to this event prevented widespread travel problems. However, ice accumulations on trees and power lines were significant. Mercer county bore the brunt of the ice accumulations with nearly 7000 residents in Mercer county left without power during the height of the ice storm. The weight of the ice toppled dozens of trees across northern Mercer county and at one point there were more than two dozen secondary roads closed from downed trees. Outages in northern Mercer county lasted two to three days at least. Monroe county fared the best with less than 100 residents suffering from power outages.
Here are some of the snow, sleet, and freezing rain accumulations reported across southeast West Virginia as of the morning of December 9, 2013.
Greenbrier (3N Lewisburg) - 0.50 inch sleet, 0.20 inch ice,| (Clintonville) - 0.25 inch ice,| (Smoot) - 0.25 inch,|Mercer (Athens) - 1.0 inch of sleet, 0.25 to 0.50 inch ice,| (Flat Top) - 0.25 to 0.50 inch ice,|Monroe (4WNW Union) - 0.50 inch sleet, 0.25 inch ice,| (2E Wolfcreek) - 0.25 inch ice,| (1 SSE Alderson) - 0.25 inch ice,|Summers (Pipestem) - 0.50 inch sleet, 0.38 inch ice,| (Talcott) - 0.25 inch ice.