ROANOKE, Va. – Patience is necessary for a lot of things these days, and that pertains to the weather as well. After a chilly start, Thursday will be very nice! We’ll see lots of sun, and temperatures will warm up 10° more than they did Wednesday.
By Friday, the atmosphere is up to its old antics again. A cold front will inch closer towards us, and will start by producing some steady rain after lunchtime Friday. This will last on and off for several hours, with 0.25-0.75″ of rain expected.
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As colder air moves in, any leftover moisture will fall in the form of snow on our west-facing slopes late Friday night into Saturday morning. This cold air from Canada will turn May to March come Saturday morning.
Temperatures fall into the 30s to near 40 Saturday morning, but the wind may make it feel a little bit colder than that. A Freeze Watch is in effect for Saturday morning in areas like the New River Valley and Highlands.
Not to mention, highs Saturday will range from the upper 40s in the New River Valley to low to mid 50s elsewhere. That’s near-record daytime cold for us!
Once the wind calms Saturday night into Sunday, nighttime temperatures fall to near-record levels too. This means the chance for some frost, with morning lows around 30-35° (colder in some mountain valleys).
This weekend will be dry, with sunshine thrown into the mix. That will at least help to warm things up for Mother’s Day, with highs in the 60s. That’s still not what you typically expect this time of year, though.
In fact, this could be one of the coolest Mother’s Days in our area in about a decade.
This kind of cool weather lingers into early next week, with the jet stream staying drooped over the southeastern U.S.
For those craving warmer days, however, there’s hope.
Forecast data shows the jet stream retreating north, meaning that the cooler air will do so as well. By late next week (Thursday, Friday and possibly the weekend), we should start to see temperatures return to the 70s and maybe even 80s during the day.