ROANOKE, Va. – The Matts Creek Fire continues to grow in size Wednesday, as terrain, low humidity and occasional breezes make the fight a tough one.
Smoke from the fire will blow more into Rockbridge County on Wednesday, making for poor air quality—especially during the afternoon.
Under no circumstances should you be burning. The drought continues in our area, and fires can/will spread quickly. Be extra careful about where you throw cigarette butts too. Something as small as that can get a brush fire started in these conditions.
Aside from the smoke, we’ll see high clouds filtering out the sun on Wednesday. As those clear out, temperatures plummet again overnight.
The threat of brush and/or wildfires continues Thursday, as we’ll be warm, dry and breezy. It’s not until late Friday that we see our first shot of rain.
This likely moves in Friday evening, Friday night and early Saturday morning. A system offshore will gobble up some moisture, but there should still be enough to give us light rain totals.
Expect more rain near the WV-VA line and lesser rain totals farther east.
Beyond that, we turn windy Saturday and cooler for the weekend. We’ll be dry throughout the remainder of the weekend.
Our next shot of rain arrives late next Monday night into next Tuesday, and it will likely be a cold rain for most of us (maybe a wintry mix in some highest elevations north of the Roanoke Valley).
This system has the potential to give us more rain, as it dips south and grabs sufficient moisture out of the Gulf. We just have to hope that thunderstorms in Alabama and Georgia don’t rob us of the energy needed for a soaking rain.
Showers likely continue into Wednesday before cooler, drier air prevails into Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
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