Team Norfolk: FINAL WINTER STORM UPDATE 1/11 @ 5pm

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The following comes from Bill Sammler, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wakefield:

After a 2 day period of much warmer temperatures, a cold front will move through the region from the north during the day Friday, as Arctic high pressure builds southward into the region. This will usher in colder temperatures Friday afternoon through Saturday. Meanwhile, moisture from the Midwest will begin moving over top of the cold air near the ground, generating some light precipitation spreading west to east from late Friday evening into Saturday, especially along and north of a Fluvanna county to Chincoteague line. There will be enough cold air near the ground for some of the precipitation to fall as sleet and possibly freezing rain.

At this time, the precipitation, regardless of form, is expected to be light, with any travel impacts expected to be minor. Temperatures will be warming again from late Saturday into Sunday, so any precipitation beyond Saturday evening will be in the form of liquid rain. We will be refining the forecast over the next couple days, and will provide you another update sometime Thursday afternoon.

This looks to be a non-event for Norfolk.  Nonetheless the hourly graph depicting Friday 12pm to Sunday 12pm is provided below as well as the 72-hour rainfall forecast graphic.

This is the final update related to the recent winter weather. 

I want to take this time to thank all who worked this even, who braved long hours in hazardous conditions – away from family - to get our community back to where it needed.  I want to thank those who volunteered to assist others in need.  Those who were committed to helping, caring for and treating our residents experiencing homelessness with compassion, dignity and respect as was the case through the fantastic efforts of NEST (overnight sheltering) and the Community Services Board (daytime warming station).  Much thanks to those who armed themselves with a shovel, a kind heart and linked up with Operation Blessing in our Snow Buddies program!  Their efforts helped people like one 8-month pregnant military spouse whose husband was deployed, a woman recovering from breast cancer surgery only a week ago, another challenged with Parkinson’s and diabetes, and so many more.  And thanks goes to so many who responded by keeping the community informed.  Our Norfolk Cares Call Center (757-664-6510) performed superbly as always! Our friends in the media did an incredible job explaining the complexities of these incidents as well as provide real-time situation awareness.  So many in the Twittersphere and other social media sites did wonderfully communicating crucial information and various needs.  And so many knew, understood and explained incidents like these just take a little time.

In other words, it was amazing to see the community come together and respond to an infrequent incident which impacts our daily routines.  To me, this is resilience.  And it’s something on which to build, a springboard to get more involved.  Jesse Scaccia wrote a great piece in The Virginian-Pilot entitled “10 resolutions for being a better Norfolk citizen in 2017.”  Emergency Management has ways in which to get involved!  One way to get to know your neighbors and to volunteer is to participate in our free Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training!!  This program is for people of all ages and abilities to get the tools and know-how to ensure your own neighborhood is informed and prepared for the next natural or man-made incident!  Also get involved with our Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), where you don’t just get familiar with current threats, you get familiar with (and contribute toward) our plans!  To learn more about how you can get involved in these and other efforts, or recommend / request ideas and information, please contact us!  As I’ve said before, if we can leverage the talents, resources and expertise within our community from the individual to the largest organization (i.e. this is Team Norfolk), our city will be ready to respond and recover from anything which comes our way.

Thank you Team Norfolk!

Sincerely,

Jim
Director, Norfolk EOC
james.redick@norfolk.gov