ROANOKE, Va. – It may not feel like it Tuesday morning, but we’re at the beginning of a warming trend. Temperatures start in the 40s but climb into the 70s across almost the entire region by the afternoon.
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Come Wednesday, a wind coming west down the mountains will pick up speed. Gusts of 25-35 mph will be possible during the afternoon. This downslope wind acts to warm and dry the air up, so expect high temperatures in the mid to upper 70s in the New River Valley and Highlands and low to mid 80s elsewhere.
This will keep the sky clear for most of the day and into the night. That’s good news if you’d like to view the International Space Station. It flies over starting around 7:49 Wednesday evening.
A front to our north will move closer to the area. Recent forecast data indicates that the front won’t completely clear the area, meaning we’ll still be fairly warm Thursday too.
During this time, Hurricane Delta will likely be a Category 3 storm in the Gulf of Mexico. This is bad news for the Gulf States, which have already taken a beating this hurricane season. Delta is forecast to become the 7th landfalling storm along the Gulf Coast and 10th on U.S. soil this season.
The storm will weaken significantly over land, but it will give us some rain. It’s just a matter of when. A farther west track would delay the rain until mainly Sunday. A farther east track would start the rain by Saturday afternoon.
Major flooding, at the moment, is unlikely for our area. However, we could very well see an inch or more of rain from yet another tropical system. (We’ve already seen remnant rain from Bertha, IsaÃas, Laura, Sally and Beta this season.)