ROANOKE, Va. – We're finally breaking out of this incredibly wet and abnormal weather pattern. While some are left to pick up the pieces and return to their residence after evacuating, others just have to dry off a little bit.
If you look at the map at the top of this article, radar estimated rain totals of at least 4-6" of rain this week were observed in parts of Lynchburg, Bedford County, Campbell County, Pittsylvania County, Halifax County, Franklin County, Henry County, Patrick County, Wythe County and Giles County.
Recommended Videos
It's one thing for that to happen in a spot or two. It's another thing when you see that widespread across an area as large as ours.
The story that continues to gain national attention is the one in west Lynchburg, where more than half a foot of rain fell within only a few hours on Thursday.
More rain fell over the Hill City in those few hours than in the entire month of July. July 2018 was wetter than average too for Lynchburg.
So, what caused this? Why so much rain?
We faced a double whammy. Counter-clockwise winds around low pressure to the west and clockwise winds around high pressure to the east forced moisture into our region from both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
This caused a seemingly never-ending stream of scattered showers and thunderstorms. All of which had a rich amount of moisture in them.
This is not your typical summer time pattern for this area.
In fact, when we look back at the last five days in Roanoke, Blacksburg, Lynchburg and Danville - the dew points were in the 70s each day. That's an incredibly humid air mass, and is a large part as to why we saw such high rain totals.
For the latest on the College Lake Dam situation, be sure to visit here.