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Looking ahead to showers and storms

Rainy, cloudy days pay off with mild weather to start next week

ROANOKE, Va. – Wednesday is the nicest day we have for a while. Highs reach the 60s with a mix of sun and clouds. Winds stay calm and we stay dry. Let’s look ahead to Thursday and Friday to prepare for some less pleasant weather.

Thursday’s main feature is morning showers. Those showers start after midnight with peak rain at 5:00 AM. Rain is heavy for an hour in Southside, but once the sun rises the intensity drops. We dry out by noon.

Showers arrive with some strength early Thursday

Thursday’s showers are driven by a cold front from our west. This front doesn’t cool us much: some highs reach the 70s. That heat makes Thursday the warmest day for quite a while.

Thursday's showers are driven by a cold front, but warm air comes right back Friday

We don’t get much breathing room between rain systems. Friday brings more showers and even storms our way.

A warm front moves in early in the day to bring warmer air through the atmosphere. We don’t really feel that heat since clouds limit how much can reach the surface; highs stay in the 50s.

That warm air carries moisture that the system uses to turn into showers. The cold front in this system gives extra energy that could cause storms in the afternoon.

Warm air brings moisture our way that the cold front can use to cause showers and storms

The bulk of severe weather Friday is to our south. Even though we are outside of the main risk keep checking in with us as Friday gets closer for the latest on the storms: download our app for even more updates.

Storms are most likely in Southside, but any of us could get rumbles of thunder.

The highest risk of severe weather Friday is south of us, but some storms could reach us

After all of these fronts have their say we stay consistently cooler. Temperatures are about 10 degrees cooler this weekend and early next week than they are Wednesday and Thursday. The warm end to February means that we still have enough heat to stay above average despite the cooldown.

The first days of March are still above average but nowhere near as warm as the end of February

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