Rain becomes widespread, heavy at times Friday

ROANOKE, Va. – Although it’s been very cold lately, at least there’s been sunshine. The sun gradually gets dimmed out by clouds on Thursday, as a storm system to our west inches closer to the region.

Temperatures overnight fall to near freezing, but may climb a degree or two throughout the early morning hours Friday. This saves us from a widespread freezing rain threat, but it’s possible to see some brief and spotty freezing rain around the Roanoke Valley between 6 and 9 a.m Friday.

A steady stream of moisture overriding cooler air will bring us widespread rain Friday, with most of it being on the light to moderate end throughout the day.

As this storm gets closer and closer, it lifts the moist air which will cause the rain to get heavy at times after 4 or 5 p.m. Friday.

As our system lifts northeast, that area of heavy rain and strong wind gusts will move northeast too throughout the evening.

At the end of it all, we wind up with an average of 0.75-1.50″ of rain, but some spots could see more than that. In any case, flash flooding looks unlikely. We would need about 3-4.5″ of rain in a 24-hour time frame for that to occur. Creeks and streams may rise, and some low-lying spots may flood.

You should also be careful on the roads later in the day and at night, as ponding and/or hydroplaning will be possible.

As you can imagine, it’s probably best to keep your plans indoors Friday and Friday night. However, we’re dry for much of the weekend.

Most of us will be on the windy and dry side of things, but a trailing area of low pressure to our west will take Great Lakes moisture and pile it up on the mountains of West Virginia Saturday and Sunday.

Snowshoe and Quinwood will likely receive several inches. Outside of a quick burst of snow/flurries in the New River Valley, Highlands or higher elevations of the Roanoke Valley, our chance of wintry weather this weekend is shot.