Scattered bursts of rain, snow to develop Friday afternoon and evening

A weak disturbance brings in scattered snow squalls Friday afternoon before a dry weekend

ROANOKE, Va. – Similar to Wednesday night and Thursday morning, we will be tracking more scattered bursts of snow Friday afternoon and evening.

A weak disturbance above us will push through, creating the opportunity for a little bit of snow. Most accumulation (1-3″ and isolated higher totals) will be on our west-facing slopes like Burke’s Garden, Whitetop/Mt. Rogers, Troutdale, Mountain Lake, Quinwood, Snowshoe and the Blue Grass Valley.

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However, these scattered bursts of snow and flurries will make it into parts of the New River Valley, Roanoke Valley and Highlands during the afternoon. Farther east, it will likely be too warm for snow to make it to the surface (although you may see a few flakes or sleet pellets later in the afternoon).

These kinds of bursts or squalls are such that you could see gusty wind, limited visibility and a quick accumulation, but then drive five minutes down the road and see some sunshine.

By the evening, most of us clear out. A secondary wave of energy will place most snow on our west-facing slopes again late at night. The worst of that will be along the Tennessee-North Carolina border.

All of this energy will be well east of here by Saturday, but we’ll be left with the cold air and gusty wind. While we start in the 20s Sunday morning, a warm breeze will develop and push our afternoon temperatures into the 50s.

Warm air continues to move into the region next week, but we’ll also see multiple chances for rain. Some storms may even develop as the jet stream inches closer to the eastern U.S. by Wednesday.

Following that, we’ll see a spell of calmer weather.


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.