ROANOKE, Va. – WEATHER UPDATE: Watch Chief Meteorologist Jeff Haniewich’s 10 p.m. weather update live by clicking here at 10 p.m.
Let’s jump right in to the storm potential we have Friday. Soon after midnight showers develop and quickly spread from west to east. Most of us have rain before sunrise.
Rain stays rather moderate in the morning. You can still get out and about early in the day without much concern for low visibility or hazardous roadways. You still want to be careful Friday morning, but it’s definitely a better time to get out than the afternoon.
In the middle of the day we get a break from rain. Some light showers linger between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM, but this is the driest stretch of Friday.
After 3:00 PM more moisture heads our way. Using extra heat from the warming we get some storms develop. All of us have a chance of heavy rain, but the main severe risk is in the NRV and Roanoke zones.
By 8:00 PM the heavy rain eases off with very few showers for the rest of the night. Once we dry out Friday we stay nice and dry through the weekend and into next week.
The biggest risk we have from any storms Friday is wind damage. Be sure to bring everything indoors that you can. Know where a flashlight and batteries are in case the wind causes damage to power lines.
Lightning is the other threat Friday presents with most coming in the mid-to-late afternoon window. By bedtime the rumbles of thunder are at a minimum.
A lack of energy prevents tornadoes from being a major threat Friday, and rain is not enough to cause much flooding at this point in the season.
Rain totals are highest in Southside and the Lynchburg Zone. That’s not to say it’s light everywhere else; we still get almost an inch of rain across most of our region.
Clouds hold temperatures down consistently Friday. That lack of heating is good for us in terms of severe weather: the less heat the storms have to work with the less intense they can develop. Temperatures slowly climb back up after the rain.