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Know Your Zone: Making the forecast in our area easier to understand

Our area’s weather and geography is so diverse. We’re working for you to make it easier to understand.

Know Your Zone (Copyright 2021 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.)

ROANOKE, Va. – The difference in elevation, along with other geographical features, makes predicting weather in our area tough at times. Understanding where you fall within that forecast can also be tough, which is why we’re here to help.

Your Local Weather Authority has been working for you, forecasting weather in all five zones of our region: the Highlands, New River Valley, Roanoke Valley, Lynchburg area and Southside.

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Look below to see which of these zones you fall into.

Roanoke Valley

This zone includes Roanoke County, the Cities of Salem and Roanoke, and the counties of Botetourt and Franklin.

Roanoke Valley zone

Lynchburg Area

Lynchburg is obviously included in this zone. In addition, we’ve lumped Bedford, Amherst, Nelson, Appomattox and Campbell Counties in this zone. These areas hardly see much deviation in the weather from the Hill City.

Lynchburg area zone

The New River Valley

Some of our higher elevations are included in the NRV, which many of you are familiar with anyways because of...well...The New River! The Cities of Galax and Radford are included, as are the counties of Bland, Wythe, Grayson, Patrick, Floyd, Pulaski, Giles and Montgomery.

New River Valley zone

Southside

Our southernmost counties and cities are included in the Southside. This pertains to the cities of Martinsville and Danville, along with Henry, Pittsylvania, Halifax and Charlotte Counties.

Southside zone

The Highlands

Lastly, we have the Highlands. For this, we lumped in a few additional counties than you might be used to seeing associated with the Highlands. This was to avoid clutter, but to also show counties with similar weather to that of places like Alleghany County.

In addition to Alleghany County, we’ve included Craig, Bath, Highland and Rockbridge Counties in this zone. This naturally includes the Cities of Lexington, Buena Vista and Covington.

Highlands zone

If you have questions about our forecasts, feel free to reach out to use individually on social media. If you have pictures or videos, make sure to send them via Pin It.


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About the Author
Chris Michaels headshot

Meteorologist Chris Michaels is an American Meteorological Society (AMS) Certified Broadcaster, forecasting weather conditions in southwest Virginia on WSLS 10 News from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. weekdays on Virginia Today.

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