Strong wind, cold air, mountain snow follow Thursday morning’s storms

We’ll gradually travel back to February once we get rid of Thursday morning’s strong-to-severe storms

Advisory in effect from 10 a.m. Thursday until 8 p.m.

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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The wind will come out of the northwest at 15-30 mph Thursday afternoon

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.

Keep these in mind when dealing with Thursday and Friday's high wind gusts

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.

Wind chills fall into the 20s and 30s for a lot of us 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.

Mountain snow likely develops overnight

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.

Cold and dry to start and wet to finish

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.


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.