ROANOKE, Va. – A line of strong-to-severe storms is moving through the area during the wee morning hours Thursday. Behind that, we’ll get another push of light rain as our actual cold front passes through the region. Once that moves through, the wind will really begin to pick up.
That’s why most of us are under a Wind Advisory (see graphic above) from 10 a.m. Thursday until 8 p.m. Thursday. Wind speeds, sustained, will be anywhere from 15 to 30 mph, but gusts could reach up to 45 mph. (Some higher mountains could see gusts up to 55 mph.)
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Given the saturated ground, wind like this could topple some trees and create some power outages. Make sure to weigh down empty trash cans, trampolines and basketball nets. You may also want to consider taking any any hanging baskets or wind chimes indoors.
The wind, while not as strong at night, will still be a factor once you include the colder air coming in. Wind chills will drop into the 20s for folks near and west of the Blue Ridge Parkway by Friday morning.
In addition to that, we’ll even get a taste of mountain snow overnight. Most of this will accumulate on the west-facing slopes. However, we may see some spill over into parts of the New River Valley.
We’ll keep the February feel around through Good Friday, despite the sunshine and drier weather. High temperatures only get into the 50s for most of the area, with 30s expected at night. If the wind calms down enough, we could see some areas of frost develop by Saturday morning.
Come Easter Sunday, we’ll be tracking a strong area of low pressure that emerges from the Gulf of Mexico. We’ll likely start the day dry, but see rain increase from south to north throughout the day. As this system inches closer, we’ll see heavy rain develop late at night into Monday morning.
Severe storms aren’t out of the question either, so make sure you stay tuned for updates over the coming days.