Wintry feel lingers Thursday; tracking a coastal storm system

After another frigid start Thursday, only a slight-warmup in the cards through Friday.

Wintry air lingers through the weekend. (WSLS)

ROANOKE, Va. – Thursday starts off frigid once again, with temperatures in the teens and low 20s. Thankfully, the wind isn’t around to make a significant difference. Highs only get into the 40s during the afternoon, with some high-level cirrus clouds dancing around.

Eventually, these clouds turn more overcast later at night. As a system near the Gulf States gets going, it will try to throw some moisture our way. However, that moisture is met by our currently dry air mass. It’s possible that we see a few light rain showers overnight in areas near and east of the Parkway, with perhaps a very brief pocket of freezing rain or two.

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Possibly a few rain showers overnight. (WSLS)

Most, if any, rain will be gone by the Friday morning commute. We’re left with clouds in the morning that will gradually move east through the afternoon and evening. This sets us up for a cool evening of playoff football.

Cool night for playoff football (WSLS)

It may start to get a little breezy at times, especially in areas east of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The low pressure system that we talked about a few lines up will move up the East Coast. High pressure, meanwhile, will be around Lake Erie. These two systems will direct a gusty wind out of the north and northeast by Saturday.

Turning windy on Saturday. (WSLS)

This same wind will keep things a little colder, despite a partly cloudy sky, on Saturday. By Sunday, the wind lets up. This means morning lows start in the 20s and afternoon highs rise to near 50°.

A cooler weekend ahead. (WSLS)

By mid-to-late next week, some of us may return into the upper 50s and lower 60s. That’s actually the ‘average’ for mid November, anyway.


About the Author:

Meteorologist Chris Michaels is an American Meteorological Society (AMS) Certified Broadcaster, forecasting weather conditions in southwest Virginia on WSLS 10 News from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. weekdays on Virginia Today.