Major winter storm to bring heavy snow this weekend

A major winter storm is increasingly likely across all of Virginia, northern North Carolina, and possibly into Maryland, starting Saturday night and continuing all day Sunday, and tapering off Sunday evening. The main difference so far is in where exactly the heaviest bands of snow set up (plenty of cold air around this time to keep it all snow for the Richmond area). But the average of all the forecast models currently shows about a foot of snow over Richmond and the surrounding counties. Some models go higher, like the European model which blankets most of the state in 15-20 inches, some lower like the GFS which only has about 7 inches in Richmond, much less north, and more further south. I’ll have a better idea on the exact storm track by Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, but the main point right now is that a significant winter storm is likely this weekend, followed by record cold temperatures (some single digits Monday morning).