ELKINS — Randolph County and the surrounding area is looking at up to 2 to 4 inches of snow tonight and Sunday, followed by a major temperature drop Sunday night, a National Weather Service meteorologist said.

“We’re looking at about an inch of snow (Friday night),” meteorologist Joe Curtis told The Inter-Mountain Friday afternoon. “There’s gonna be a break in the snow shower activity (today) during the day. It’s going to be dry.

“And then another clipper system, which is what we call them, is going to move in (tonight) and into Sunday morning,” he added. “That’s going to bring another round of accumulating snow, mainly during the overnight hours (tonight) into Sunday morning.

“That snow is also going to continue throughout the day on Sunday, and then come to an end Sunday night. So that could bring anywhere from about 2 to 4 inches of additional snow accumulation to your area.

“It’s also going to bring some really cold temperatures, too,” Curtis said. “Sunday night should be one of the coldest nights we’ve had so far this season. We’ll be down close to 10 degrees, and we’ll have wind-chill temperatures closer to zero by Monday morning.”

The high temperature on Monday and Tuesday will be about 27 degrees, according to the NWS forecast for the area, with a low Monday night of about 15 degrees.

“Later next week we’re going to see some chances of snow showers as well,” Curtis said. “‘Right now, it doesn’t look like anything significant, in terms of accumulation, just some on-and-off light snow showers. Temperatures are going to still be cold, too, on Tuesday, but as we head into Wednesday and Thursday it should get a little bit warmer, so Tuesday’s going to be in the 20s, and then Wednesday and Thursday will be closer to 40.

“Wednesday and Thursday are going to see chances of snow showers, and they may be mixed with some rain showers, as it will be a little bit warmer, around 40 degrees.”

The snow and rainfall should help to battle the continuing drought conditions in our area, Curtis said.