ROANOKE, Va. – Saturday’s cold front sweeps in from the northeast and keeps our afternoon soggy. The severe threat is low, but storms are possible in the late afternoon.
Showers start in the middle of the day but it takes a few hours for them to turn into storms. The best chance for storms is between 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM.
Showers begin on western slopes Saturday afternoon. Clouds are hard to come by for most of us at this point let alone showers.
By 4:00 PM showers spread through the northern counties. Some isolated downpours develop with a few storms.
Storm chances continue with moderate to heavy rain in some of our central counties.
By 9:00 PM storms are easing off. There is some consistent rain in our southernmost counties, but even those showers wrap up by midnight.
Showers are at their widest spread in the middle of the afternoon. Once this system moves through there are lots of dry days ahead.
Our region stays in a Level 1 risk for storms through Saturday. The main threats are lightning and some high wind gusts. Isolated flooding can’t be ruled out, but the chances are low.
Rain totals are highest in Henry and Pittsylvania counties where some totals can reach half an inch.
While this cold front stays on the small side compared to some summer fronts it still has enough power to change our temperatures quite a bit. Highs drop from the mid-to-upper 80s on Saturday into the mid-70s by Sunday.
This front pushes south of us and keeps our weather quiet most of the week. The same can’t be said for Cuba as now Tropical Storm Arlene pushes south and east bringing rainfall into the western edge of the Greater Antilles by midnight.