MORGANTOWN,W.Va. — The latest winter weather system is expected to bring accumulating snow to the region Thursday into Thursday night, followed by another blast of very cold air.

MetroNews Accuweather Meteorologist Jason Caterina said he expects snowfall to begin around mid-morning Thursday and continue into the evening. He said the existing ground conditions will likely lead to a quick dusting and the possibility of slick roadways.

“Some light snow as we head through the day,” Caterina said. “Widespread light snow for us, but being cold and already having a snowpack out, there’s certainly going to be some of that snow collecting very quickly for us.”

Steady snowfall is expected as the day continues with up to three inches of new snow in the lower elevations and more in mountain areas.

“We’ll continue to pick up a little snow as we head through the evening with little or no additional accumulation,” Caterina said. “We’ll have a total of 1 to 3 inches in the lower elevations, but up in the mountains we could see some higher totals with some upslope going as the wind shifts around later in the day.”

As the system exits the area, there is a possibility of freezing rain before transitioning back to snow Friday into Saturday.

“We’ve got the first system that’s going to pass by to our north, and that will keep us on the warm side of it,” Caterina said. “Then another quick system is going to come by later in the week to the south, and that’s going to open the door for more cold air.”

The next system will bring Canadian air down across the eastern United States beginning Sunday night. The current MetroNews AccuWeather forecast shows temperatures reaching 29 during the day on Sunday and dropping into the single digits in the evening.

“A lot of that very cold air from the north is going to be pooling up and lingering for us,” Caterina said. “So, the second half of the month is looking like a very true January and will be very cold.”

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