ROANOKE, Va. – Roanoke’s historic heat wave and Lynchburg’s 4th-longest heat wave will both come to an end by Friday.
Most of Thursday can be characterized as “typical summer” weather. We’ll see temperatures rise into the 80s in the New River Valley and Highlands and upper 80s to lower 90s elsewhere.
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Storms will start off rather spotty along and to the west of the Blue Ridge Parkway between 12 and 4 p.m. Most of Lynchburg and Southside will remain dry with increasing clouds.
Meanwhile, a front will be draped just to our north. As a storm system rides along that front, we’ll notice more showers and storms move in during the evening and nighttime hours. Some of us may very well get a nighttime light show out of this.
This front lingers nearby, keeping the chance for rain and storms in the forecast Friday and Saturday. Localized flooding will be possible as a result.
With additional cloud cover, it’s likely that we snap the stretch of 90° heat in parts of the area Friday.
Offshore, we are now tracking Tropical Storm Isaías. This storm is currently in the Caribbean but is moving quickly to the west-northwest. Now that it has a more defined center, forecast data should start to come into better agreement as to where it goes.
Its exact path will determine whether or not we see anything from this, so expect changes in the forecast for early next week. The cone above represents where the center of the storm could be.
If it moves farther inland, we’ll see a lot more rain and potential flooding next Monday and Tuesday (maybe even severe weather). If it goes a little bit offshore, we won’t be quite as wet and we’ll start to turn less humid by next Tuesday.
Stay with us for updates on air and online throughout the next few days.