ROANOKE, Va. – Now that Tuesday’s gone with the wind, the wind isn’t necessarily gone for Wednesday. A powerful Nor’Easter continues to spin near Nova Scotia, but the wind field around it is large.
This will keep wind speeds between 10 and 20 mph Wednesday, with gusts in excess of 30 mph at times. This is especially the case along and to the west of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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At least high pressure is inching closer. Sinking air (as a result of high pressure) will lead to more sunshine throughout the day Wednesday. Temperatures recover a little bit with afternoon highs in the 30s and 40s area-wide.
Enjoy the sunshine, because clouds return throughout the day Thursday. This comes ahead of our first cold front. Marginally cold air could lead to a brief wintry mix to areas north of I-64 and around I-77 late Thursday night into early Friday morning.
Otherwise, we’re mostly above freezing for a quick-hitting batch of rain showers Friday morning.
We’ll turn windy at times again behind this front with highs of 45-50° in most of the area Friday afternoon.
So, our threat of wintry weather remains low Friday and Saturday. Come Sunday, we’re tracking a second cold front from the west. Latest forecast data has that front move through a bit more quickly, resulting in a lower chance for snow (but the chance is not zero just yet).
What’s changed over the past day is that most forecast data keeps the worst of the cold air bottled up north early next week. The jet stream doesn’t appear to drop quite as far south as previously projected.
While we’ll get colder Monday and Tuesday, it’s becoming less likely that we see highs in the 20s or sub-zero wind chills.
With cold air around and an active jet stream, however, we’ll have to keep an eye on the pattern next week. There could be an opportunity or two for wintry weather in that kind of pattern. Stay tuned!