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A Pumpkin Spice Watch is possible as autumn air settles in

It will feel like October this weekend and early next week

Pumpkin spice alerts for the weekend

ROANOKE, Va. – As soon as we say goodbye to Sally, we say hello to fall! The season of pumpkin spice and everything nice doesn’t officially start until Tuesday, but we’ll get a taste this weekend.

Your Local Forecast

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A cold front is passing through Friday, guiding the remnants of Sally out to sea. This front may also produce a few hit-or-miss showers (nothing like what we saw Thursday).

FutureTracker - Friday afternoon

Once the cold front moves east is when things get good for all you PSL-drinking, flannel-wearing, football-watching folk. As drier air comes in from the north, we expect to see clouds Saturday give way to a little more sun later on. By Sunday, it’s full-on sunshine and highs in the 60s.

Sunflower festival forecast for 9/19 and 9/20/2020

Each morning from Sunday through at least next Tuesday will start out downright chilly, thanks to a clear sky, calm wind and dry air. Low temperatures will be in the low-to-mid 40s.

SWEATER WEATHER!

Morning lows from 9/19 to 9/23/2020

We checked, and the record low temperatures for this time of year are in the 30s.

Tropics Update...Again

While all this is going on here at home, we’re likely going to check off the final name on the 2020 Atlantic hurricane list. Wilfred will develop at some point Friday and meander in the Gulf of Mexico the next few days.

Tropical tracker for the next few days as Wilfred forms

Fall and Fires

Meanwhile, the official start to fall is Tuesday when the sun’s rays appear directly over the equator (known as the equinox).

Fall equinox - Sept 22, 2020

Go figure...we may actually start to warm up after that point! But there’s one thing that could pump the brakes on the warm-up, and it’s wildfire smoke. As fires continue to rage out west, the smoke from these fires rides the jet stream.

As the jet stream begins to retreat north (and we warm up), some of that smoke may return to create a hazy sky by the middle of next week.

Tracking wildfire smoke by Tuesday, 9/22/2020

We’ll let you know if that changes at all, but it likely won’t be a burden on our health/air quality if it does make it back here.