ROANOKE, Va. – The last several days brought severe weather to many parts of the country. In this article, we break down the storm reports across the nation and assess the severe weather outcome across Southwest and Central Virginia.
Wind was by far the highest report since Friday. Damaging and destructive winds were reported from the Rockies to the East Coast over the past three days. As reported last week, the biggest threat with this storm system was the wind and that’s how it played out.
Tornadoes were also a large threat. The Midwest was under a level 4/5 risk for severe weather on Friday and Dixie Alley was under a level 5/5 risk for severe weather on Saturday. The threat of tornadoes was elevated this time around because of an extremely conducive atmosphere.
Multiple long-track tornadoes occurred during this event.
There were also many reports of hail, where some saw hail greater than 2 inches in diameter fall from the sky.
Across Southwest and Central Virginia, there were five reports of hail.
Flooding was also a concern and was seen in areas where long-track heavy rain fell.
Let’s talk a little more local. Sunday started out mostly cloudy with winds primarily out of the south at the surface. This kept temperatures in the upper 50s and lower 60s for much of the day.
Once we got into the early/mid-afternoon, cloud cover began to break and mostly clear skies unfolded. This first occurred in the New River Valley.
Shortly after, temperatures began to rise, and so did instability. As a result, storms started to pop in the NRV before eventually trekking into the Highlands.
The Roanoke Valley, Southside, and Lynchburg also saw mostly clear skies build in later in the afternoon. By the evening, warm surface temperatures aided in the lift, which then produced storms that erupted very quickly.
The storm you see in Danville above only took a few minutes to develop. There were clear skies, and then within minutes, there was heavy rain, gusty wind, and small hail.
Atmospheric soundings, or balloon launches are crucial to understanding the potential for severe weather.
So, why was our coverage of severe weather so sparse? Well, a few things caused this, one of which is seen in the soundings.
- A small cap, or convective inhibition: This limited the development of storms early. Temperatures needed at the surface in order for storms to ‘break free’ were not reached. As a result, cloud cover at the lower levels prevailed for quite some time. Eventually, the cap broke and storms were able to form (check differences in circled areas on soundings).
- The jet stream: The jet was cranking the past couple of days. There are two regions of the jet we watch during each weather event. The right entrance and left exit (relative to motion). These two regions provide lift at the lower levels and upper-level divergence, which are important for thunderstorm growth and can enhance the severity of storms that do develop. The jet was moving at such a rapid pace that we missed the two zones where enhanced weather can unfold. If the regions of the jet lined up with Southwest and Central Virginia at the same time, we had warming temperatures and sunshine, a more impactful severe weather event may have unfolded.
Locally, we saw over a dozen severe thunderstorm warnings and had a tornado watch in effect for several hours.
As of now, the rounds of severe weather over the past couple of days have unfortunately claimed the lives of 39 people, and have greatly impacted thousands. For more information click here.
To stay up to date on all things weather, download our weather app.
