ROANOKE, Va. – Make sure you have our weather app downloaded for any alerts that are issued Friday.
The threat for severe weather Friday afternoon and evening is higher than usual.
Before we get to that, there is one band of rain that will move through during the morning. While there may be some claps of thunder embedded within this, the threat for damaging thunderstorms is low at this time.
A few showers and storms may then develop close the mountains around lunchtime.
Any breaks of sunshine throughout the day will only add more warmth and more fuel to the atmosphere. Sun is not our friend on a day like Friday.
Strong-to-severe storms then form south of a warm front between roughly 1 and 7 p.m. or 2 and 8 p.m. Friday.
These will move quickly from west to east, with the main threat being damaging wind gusts. The tornado threat is higher than usual, especially across Southside. Hail cannot be ruled out in a few storms either.
You can find a more detailed severe weather outlook in the embedded tweet below.
2:40 a.m. Friday Update
— Chris Michaels (@WSLS_Michaels) May 6, 2022
Severe weather threat increasing for the area during the afternoon. Damaging wind gusts are the main concern, but a tornado and/or hail is possible too - especially in Southside. pic.twitter.com/cVKXpxTOEl
Beyond 8 p.m., a few stragglers may be leftover, but the severe weather threat will be low at that time.
This storm system will linger overhead Saturday, but it won’t produce any severe weather. Rather, it will still fire off occasional showers with temperatures dropping into the 50s by the afternoon.
This sets us up with one of the coolest Mother’s Days in the last 15 years. High temperatures across the board will be around 55 to 61°.
Maybe treat Mom to a hot cup of coffee or a bowl of chili.
We’ll warm up into the 60s and 70s each afternoon next week.