ROANOKE, Va. – We start off Wednesday frozen, with temperatures in the teens and some thick frost either on your car or on the windshield. The next two afternoons, however, we’ll thaw out with highs in the 40s. Come Thursday, we’ll see more clouds moving into the region. These clouds eventually thicken, becoming more overcast late Thursday into Thursday night.
This comes ahead of our next storm system, which will toss some moisture our way Friday. This will be enough to set off some rounds of light to moderate rain, as soon as Friday morning. If it comes in shortly before sunrise, a brief period of freezing rain near and north of 460 will be possible. However, given the cloud cover and initially dry air, we think most of us see this start out as light rain before lunchtime Friday.
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The overall storm system (low pressure) inches closer late in the day Friday and Friday evening, lifting the air more and allowing the rain to become heavier in nature. A warm layer of air above us might be enough to cause some rumbles of thunder too.
A slot of dry air forms by Saturday morning, with a gusty wind developing out of the west. It appears as though most of Saturday will be dry, with clouds lingering. However, a trailing area of low pressure thousands of feet above us will set of some mountain snow Saturday into early Sunday. Several inches of snow are expected in Snowshoe and Quinwood.
We could see a few bursts of flurries and snow showers Saturday evening in parts of the New River Valley, Highlands and Roanoke Valley too. Accumulation, if any, would likely be brief and light.
For most of us, Saturday and Sunday will be pretty gusty at times.
We’ll see the sun breaking out more Sunday, with fairly calm weather taking over through early next week.