ROANOKE, Va. – January 2022 (so far) has been about 1°F lower than average. Temperatures the first two days of the week, however, will be close to the average high.
Expect a mix of clouds and sun Monday with highs ranging from the low to mid 40s in the New River Valley and Highlands to mid to upper 40s in the Roanoke Valley, Lynchburg area and Southside.
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A weak disturbance passes north of us Monday night into Tuesday morning, leading to snow showers on the west-facing slopes. The rest of us will just see more clouds Tuesday.
A strong cold front then passes through the region heading into Wednesday. This won’t have a lot of moisture, as that’s all being hogged by a separate system to the south.
What it will do is bring temperatures down and bring the wind back, leading to low wind chills first thing Wednesday morning.
Highs Wednesday afternoon will be in the 20s in the mountains and 30s elsewhere - despite sunshine.
Winter weather is held to a minimum through Thursday. With cold air in place, we’ll have to watch the pattern late Friday. The northern branch (cold) and the southern branch (moisture/storm track) will phase together to create a stronger storm.
Where that happens is key.
If that phasing happens farther west, we’ll be in line for more winter weather late Friday. If that phasing happens farther east, like most models show, we could still see some light snow but the worst weather will be in the Northeast.
Regardless, we turn very cold and windy once again by Saturday. Keep tabs on the forecast when we’re not on air by downloading our app.