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Summer’s back! Heat, humidity precede the chance for a few stronger storms Wednesday

The heat index gets to 95-100° in some parts of the area with scattered storms around to cool things off a bit.

Estimated peak heat index Wednesday prior to any storms

ROANOKE, Va. – After a couple straight days in the 70s, summer decides to come back to work after a long weekend. High temperatures will generally be between 85 and 90° (some exceptions in the higher elevations), with the humidity making it feel hotter than that at times.

Your Local Forecast

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A front to our west will trigger some storms that will then move east into the area after about 1 or 2 p.m. While storms won’t be widespread, they could easily become strong to severe. Our heat, humidity and enough wind energy above us will allow for the possibility of localized wind damage in any storm that forms.

Wednesday's severe weather risk

Therefore, the Storm Prediction Center has put our area under a Level 1 of 5 risk for the day.

We’ll stay on the hot side of a front through the rest of the week with the chance for a few storms Thursday and Friday afternoons too.

What we're tracking for the rest of the week

Once that front passes east of us, we’re talking about a pretty big difference in humidity levels for the weekend! Things will feel a lot more comfortable out there, which is great for outdoor Labor Day weekend plans.

Tracking humidity levels over the next 4 days

In fact, a clear sky, dry air and calm winds should allow temperatures to fall into the 50s for a lot of us by Sunday morning. This would be a first for most of the area in about two and a half months.

Sunday morning could be the coolest morning we've had in about two and a half months

The rest of Labor Day weekend looks great, with more sunshine and reasonable temperatures in the afternoon.

Labor Day weekend 2020 forecast

We’ll just have to watch for a few late day storms on Labor Day as another front gets closer to the region. This ought to make things pretty unsettled at times next week.

Tropics Update

Two named storms developed in the Atlantic basin Tuesday. Nana is moving toward Central America, while Omar is moving away from the East Coast. These are the earliest ’N’ and ’O’ named storms on record.

Tropical tracker for the next few days

Behind that, the National Hurricane Center is tracking two other waves off the West Coast of Africa. These are so far away that we need not worry for at least another 10 days.

Chances of more tropical development over the next 5 days

If these two storms get names, they’d be Paulette and Rene.