ROANOKE, Va. – Wednesday marks the final full day of summer. While it starts out comfortably, temperatures soar well into the 80s by the afternoon.
Parts of the area will briefly touch 90° Wednesday afternoon too!
Let’s not get used to that, though. We’ve got a major wardrobe change upcoming, courtesy of a powerful fall cold front.
This starts off with scattered showers and thunderstorms between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Thursday.
The highest chance of these developing looks to be along the WV-VA line and then making a jump over the Blue Ridge Parkway.
A severe storm or two will be possible in Southside between roughly 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Thursday.
While it will be breezy at times, you’ll notice the wind even more after the front moves east. Gusts of 20 to 30 mph (or higher) will be likely along and west of the Blue Ridge Parkway Thursday afternoon and evening.
While high temperatures will be in the 70s and 80s through about midday, afternoon temperatures will drop Thursday.
Plan for that if you’re heading to the Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia game Thursday evening!
As the wind backs off a bit and autumnal air continues to settle in, temperatures plummet by Friday morning.
The kids will need a jacket, contrary to the shorts and t-shirts they’ll need Wednesday, once they head out to school Friday.
Saturday will be off to a chilly start, though the rest of the day looks absolutely perfect for the many fall festivals going on in the area.
Sunday starts dry, but another cold front sends showers our way late in the day and into the night.
We’ll cool off again behind that front next week.
Tropical Update
The tropics are doing anything but cooling off.
Fiona, as of early Wednesday morning, is a Category 4 beast of a storm. This will cause high surf and rip currents along the East Coast this week, but it will not make landfall in the mainland U.S.
Gaston formed as a tropical storm Tuesday, and it will stay out to sea.
There are three other areas of potential development. The one nearest to the Caribbean bears watching for mid-to-late next week along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Where exactly it goes remains to be seen, but we’ll keep you posted as to its landfall and potential impact here in Virginia.
For all updates on the forecast at home and in the tropics, make sure you download our free weather app.