ROANOKE, Va. – Hours before Punxsutawney Phil gets woken up for his annual prognostication, we here in southwest Virginia are starting out quite cold. You may want to get the ice scraper out. I know my car windshield was frosted over earlier in the morning.
Clouds and temperatures gradually increase. Highs reach the 40s and 50s depending on your elevation.
Some showers may arrive late as moist air rides north of a warm front. This warm front stays south of us throughout much of the day Thursday. This allows periods of rain to develop.
This also makes for a backwards trend in temperatures. We mostly stay in the 40s throughout the day. As the warm front creeps north at night, temperatures rise. So, the high temperature Thursday happens at night.
Conversely, the high temperature Friday happens in the morning. A cold front moves through, bringing more rain to the area. A brief period of freezing rain will be possible north of I-64 through roughly midday Friday.
Then, our attention turns to the weekend. Friday afternoon and Saturday will be cold and dry. Come Sunday, we’re tracking two key pieces of energy - one to the north and one to the south.
If these can gel together, we’d be looking at a higher chance for winter weather Saturday night into Sunday morning.
If they stay more disjointed, we’d be looking at a lower chance of winter weather during that time frame.
Forecast data is struggling with how to make the pieces fit, so we’ll keep you posted on this potential throughout the next few days.