ROANOKE, Va. – Lets start with the positive: storms have a hard time forming today, and even when they do form the greatest risk is far from us. The Gulf Coast in Mississippi and Louisiana is most susceptible to severe weather this Friday.
For us today’s moisture falls mostly as rain. Showers started before dawn, and rain is not really done with us until late Saturday.
Most of us have some rainfall by lunchtime. The peak rain rates come between 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM.
Rain starts easing off in the late afternoon, and overnight some of us even have a break from wet weather. The clouds stick around through the night and into Saturday.
Rain totals combining both days are close to half an inch. The NRV and Southside win out with the highest totals since it’s hard for showers to get north of the North Carolina border Saturday.
Our air pattern is wedging in cooler air through the weekend. The air stacking up against the mountains keeps temperatures below average and increases the rain potential both Friday and Saturday.
Winds pick up slightly Saturday afternoon, but this wind doesn’t compare to some of what we’ve had this season.
It’s hard for Saturday to warm up thanks to all of our clouds and cooler air. That makes Easter morning pretty chilly with lows in the 30s. Sunshine does a great job of warming us up putting most highs in the low 60s.
With that cold frost is likely in the NRV and Highlands Sunday morning. It’s possible further to the east but unlikely.
Sunday marks the start of a warming trend that lasts through the week. High pressure moves in to keep skies clear. The sun does a lot of heavy lifting, but the pressure system also sends warmer air our way to push temperatures even higher.
Looking from next weekend into the middle of the month our temperatures stay above average. It’s hard for rain to reach us over that same period of time; try to enjoy the comfortable spring days that Easter rings in.