Roanoke, VA – 2024 is coming to a close, and it certainly isn’t wrapping up quietly.
After producing several tornadoes in the south, a rather large weather system will make its way eastward, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds to Southwest Virginia. Rain will begin late Friday night and slowly intensify as we head into Saturday. It is reasonable to expect rain showers continuing on and off throughout the day Saturday before the most widespread rain comes in on Sunday.
The storm prediction center has most of our region under a slight risk for severe weather on Sunday due to the risk of damaging winds. However, this storm system will not be anywhere near what we have seen in previous days further to our south in portions of Texas and the rest of the Gulf Coast.
With a lack of energy available, Severe thunderstorm development is very low, but not zero. I would expect the most severe thunderstorm development to happen further to our south in the Carolinas and extending into Georgia. If you have plans to travel, be sure you’re keeping a watch on the weather for this weekend.
Temperatures today will be mostly seasonable in the 40s. As for this weekend, we become abnormally warm for December, running over 10° average by Sunday. Several localities could see temperatures above 60° both Sunday and Monday. As for the rest of next week, we will slowly see temperatures decline as we head into the new year. While 2024 will wrap up rather warm, there are indications that we could be in for another significant temperature drop in early 2025.
We could see a few stray showers New Year’s Eve, but most of that will clear up by the time the ball drops, making for a relatively clear evening.