ROANOKE, Va. – Ophelia made landfall near Emerald Isle, North Carolina at approximately 6:20 AM this morning. The most recent advisory has winds of 70mph and a slight decrease in pressure.
Tropical Storm Ophelia brings wet weather along the Atlantic coast. It’s forecast to bring several inches of rain and tropical-storm-force winds to areas along and east of Interstate 95.
That said, we’ll see some rain and wind out of it too.
Wave heights up and down the east of the US will be high and riptides will pose a great threat.
At the moment, Ophelia is moving north at 13mph. It is expected to move in and out quickly as conditions will greatly improve up and down the coast tomorrow.
Localized winnd speeds will gradually increase through the morning hours and then peak this afternoon. Peak gusts near 30mph across the Roanoke Valley.
Further west, winds will be breezy and gust near 20-25 mph at times.
Southside and Lynchburg will see the highest peak wind gusts of all of our zones today. Winds could reach up to 40mph at times.
Below is a look at Danville’s wind speeds and gusts today.
Rain is mostly widespread this morning before gradually becoming more scattered later in the day and into the evening.
Bands of rain from Ophelia will come and go at times and will bring periods of light rain and heavy downpours.
Have our weather app downloaded in case of a sporadic outage.
In addition to the rain and wind, today is going to have a bit of a raw feel to it for late September. High temperatures will only reach the upper 50s and low-to-mid 60s.
Sunday is a better day for weekend plans as Ophelia moves out to the north. We will still see breezy conditions and a few showers through the middle of Sunday.
This rain is much needed as parts of the area are in a drought.