Happy Monday and welcome to another edition of the Beyond The Forecast weather newsletter!
We know it can get awfully cold in our area during the wintertime. In fact, the coldest temperature ever recorded in Virginia happened in our region! Pembroke dipped to -30°F on Jan. 22, 1985.
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While the coldest days of the year are still a few months away, the National Weather Service (NWS) in Blacksburg wants you to know about some upcoming changes to how they alert us to cold weather.
You probably have heard of wind chill advisories, watches and warnings. The new alerts will do away with the wind chill verbiage and be simplified to “cold weather advisory,” “extreme cold watch” and “extreme cold warning.”
Below, you can see how each new alert corresponds to the ones you’re used to.
NWS Blacksburg will use specific criteria to issue these new alerts.
When the forecast calls for actual temperatures and/or wind chills to dip between -5° and -19° in the mountains, a cold weather advisory will be issued.
If the mountains get any colder than that, NWS will issue an extreme cold watch 12 to 48 hours before the event. This alert will be upgraded to a warning when the extreme cold is occurring or is about to occur.
The threshold for these alerts is slightly warmer in the Piedmont due to the fact that those areas typically don’t get as cold as the higher elevations.
Warning coordination meteorologist Phil Hysell told 10 News that the new alerts will go into effect either this winter or next winter.
Ahead of the winter months, here are some tips on how you can protect yourself from extreme cold.
We don’t have any extreme cold in today’s forecast; rather, it will be a warm and humid day in Southwest and Central Virginia. A cold front will spark showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening. I’m breaking down the timing and threats in today’s forecast article.
You can always get specific forecast details for your zone, whether it’s the Roanoke Valley, Lynchburg area, the New River Valley 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:
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-- Justin McKee