October-like air lingers Tuesday through Thursday; Ian to provide soggy weekend

ROANOKE, Va. – Cooler air continues gradually moving into the area from the northwest, providing us with an October-like feel Tuesday through Thursday.

Highs will be in the 60s and 70s (depending on your elevation), and lows will drop into the 40s each morning.

Some mountain valleys may drop into the upper 30s Wednesday and Thursday mornings!

Clouds Thursday will increase from the south, as Hurricane Ian makes landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The storm then moves over land, weakening and slowing down.

Contrary to Michael in 2018, Ian is going to be a much slower storm. This means that rain is the main impact, whereas wind won’t be as big a deal.

Some of this rain could start as soon as Friday evening during high school football games - starting south and then moving north.

Rain totals will generally be on the order of 1-3″, spread out over a two-to-three day span. There will be a few spots that exceed 3″, due to the fact that we’ll have tropical moisture moving up higher terrain.

Therefore, localized flooding is a possibility.

We’ll watch to see where exactly Ian’s center goes.

If it goes farther west, we have to watch for the possibility of a brief spin-up tornado east of the Parkway. If that were to happen, it appears that the second half of the day Saturday would be the time to watch.

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