ROANOKE, Va. – Fred made landfall as a tropical storm Monday in the Florida panhandle. It continues to move north along the southern Appalachians. This will produce the threat for localized flash flooding, wind damage and perhaps a tornado or two Tuesday night.
Make sure you download our app, and have more than way to receive weather warnings throughout the night.
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TIMING
Moisture from Fred makes its way north into our area in the form of occasional showers and rumbles of thunder through Tuesday afternoon.
Late in the afternoon and into the early evening hours, most forecast data show a ribbon of heavy rain moving from south to north. This is not the main event, so to speak.
As the center of Fred gets closer to us after 9 p.m., that’s when we expect the worst weather to start in areas closest to I-77.
Overnight, this batch of heavy rain, gusty wind and possible severe weather (including a tornado threat) will shift east toward the US-220 corridor (Hot Springs south to Roanoke to Martinsville).
This continues to move east toward the US 29/501 corridor around 6 to 8 a.m. Wednesday. We’ll watch this closely for those of us who are heading out to school or work.
Areas like the NRV and Roanoke Valley shouldn’t have much issue during the morning commute Wednesday. We’ll just watch to see how water levels are doing in certain parts of the area.
IMPACT
Heavy rain can lead to localized flash flooding. That threat seems to be higher in the NRV and Highlands than in Lynchburg and Southside. A large chunk of the area could come away with 1-3″ of rain, but most of that falls within a relatively short amount of time.
The stronger wind above the surface may mix down in the form of gusty winds. Lastly, the increased spin from tropical systems could lead to a tornado or two. We don’t mention this to incite fear. This is just the reality when dealing with tropical systems over land.
As we mentioned above, please have more than one way to receive weather alerts including our weather app.
AFTER FRED
We turn drier by Wednesday afternoon with only isolated storms. Temperatures rise into the 80s for most of the area. Thursday will be hot and humid with a few storms around. Otherwise, typical summer weather returns to southwest and central Virginia throughout the weekend.
Elsewhere in the tropics, Grace will stay to our south. Henri meanders around Bermuda, producing high rip currents along the East Coast late this week into the weekend.