Happy Monday and welcome to another edition of Beyond The Forecast! We have been on hiatus for a few weeks but look for regular weekly editions of this newsletter moving forward.
This week’s newsletter is all about space and what you’ll be able to see in the night sky if you take a few moments to look up. Just a reminder: you should check cloud cover forecasts before heading out to your favorite viewing location.
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We’ll start with the moon, which is becoming less illuminated each night as we get closer to a new moon on April 30. The best time to view the waning crescent is an hour or two before sunrise, which is around 6:30 a.m. this week.
Flashing forward to Wednesday morning, there will be four planets visible in the eastern sky!
Look for Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn in a row above the nearly new moon. Disclaimer: the graphic below is NOT to scale. You’re looking for bright dots in the sky.
Also Wednesday morning, there will be a passage of the International Space Station! It will start at 5:09 a.m. to the west-northwest and move into the northeast sky through 5:13 a.m.
If you miss Wednesday’s flyover, you can try again Thursday morning! That one will start at 4:22 a.m. in the north-northeast sky and end in the northeast at 4:25 a.m.
If you catch a photo of what you see in the night sky, we would love to see it! The best way to share your photos is with the Pin It feature on the WSLS weather app.
Switching gears to this week’s forecast, we started it incredibly warm but some changes are coming with Tuesday’s cold front! Meteorologist Chris Michaels tracks the rain and cold snap we’re expecting in today’s forecast article.
You can always get specific forecast details for your zone, whether it’s the Roanoke Valley, Southside, the Highlands or elsewhere around Southwest and Central Virginia, anytime at WSLS.com/weather. Know your zone!
In case you missed it, we’re posting great weather and science content on WSLS.com. Here are a few links from the past week to check out:
If you prefer your weather information delivered by social media, you can follow Your Local Weather Authority on Facebook and Twitter.
You can also keep up with me on social media. I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, follow along!
-- Justin McKee