ROANOKE, Va. – While Monday only featured a few spotty storms, we expect more numerous showers and thunderstorms to develop Tuesday afternoon. A front, combined with our warmth and humidity, will set some storms off between Noon and 3 in areas along and west of the Parkway. East of that point, storms will get a later start.
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A few of these storms could become strong-to-severe. According to the Storm Prediction Center, our area is in a Level 1 risk of 5. Don’t expect an outbreak, but at least be aware of the potential for a few stronger storms.
The main things we’ll be looking out for will be localized flooding, a few downed trees and/or hail in a couple storms. The overall threat for a tornado is fairly low.
The same front that helps trigger these storms will move east. Once it does so, we’ll notice a subtle drop in humidity levels. By Wednesday and Thursday, things will feel a little more tolerable.
Meanwhile, our eyes are on the tropics. This time, however, it’s not for a tropical storm. (Although, Dolly will likely form Tuesday in the North Atlantic and move away from the US.).
Saharan dust has been all the rage on social media. While it’s nothing new, this is a little more of an impressive plume that’s emerged from Africa. Below is just a glimpse of what the sky looked like Monday in Puerto Rico.
For us, the concentration may not be as high as Puerto Rico come this weekend. However, this may still provide some haze to our sky by Saturday.
Other than that, this amount of dust limits tropical development in the Gulf and Caribbean for now. It will also make for some colorful sunrises and sunsets. The one negative to this is that if the concentration of dust is high enough, this could pose a problem for allergies, asthma and other lung/heart issues.
For now, we’re keeping temperatures higher this weekend than the rest of the week. The one thing that could put a damper on that is a thicker haze set off by the Saharan dust.
We’ll keep you posted throughout the week.