ROANOKE, Va. – ‘Tis the season for cold fronts, and we’ll be sent a pair of them within a span of 4-5 days.
Wednesday is the pre-front day, when clouds increase. Temperatures rise from the 40s in the morning to the 60s and 70s by the afternoon.
Rain showers (and rumbles of thunder) move south to north overnight into Thursday morning.
Some of us will have to dodge some periods of rain during the morning commute Thursday.
By the afternoon, a wind coming down the slopes will choke out most of the moisture in the New River Valley, Roanoke Valley and Highlands.
That leaves us with one last gasp of scattered showers and storms around Lynchburg and Southside between 2 and 6 p.m.
We’ll briefly turn cooler behind this front, leaving us with lows in the 30s and 40s Friday and Saturday mornings.
The wind turns out of the south this weekend, allowing us to warm right back up into the 70s for highs. Most rain showers will stay juuuuust to our west until Sunday night.
That’s when our second and stronger cold front moves west to east.
Recent model data suggests less moisture than previously shown, meaning a few showers Sunday night into Monday morning.
The greatest blast of colder air comes in Tuesday, at which point high temperatures will only reach about 50 to 56° before falling to-or-below freezing by next Wednesday morning.
That’s about 15° below average for this time of year and is more of what you’d expect about a month from now.
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