Late spring, early summer feel to come just days after freezing our tails off!

Warmth, a little dose of humidity and the daily shot of storms return to the forecast

5-day high temperature trend

ROANOKE, Va. – This has been one of the coolest Mays on record in our area so far, but that is about to change.

A warm front lifting north of the area today should allow high temperatures to return to the 70s, which is where we should be this time of year. A little dose of humidity will allow some pop-up storms to develop after about 3 p.m.

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FutureTracker 5 p.m. Thursday

That chance goes down after sunset and should stay down most of Friday, thanks to a wind out of the west that will dry the air up a bit. Still, we’re going to be tracking warmer air, more humidity and a series of fronts to our north. This will mean the daily shot for storms throughout the weekend.

What We're Tracking - Friday

It won’t be wet the entire time, so just have a backup plan if you want to be outdoors.

Weekend planner - 05/14 to 05/16

During the weekend, we may actually get our first named storm (Arthur) in the tropics. Whether or not it gets a name doesn’t really matter to us. This will be off the East Coast throughout the weekend.

Odds of tropical development through the weekend

Another area of low pressure to our north and west moves through with a cold front on Monday, essentially absorbing some of the energy from “maybe-Arthur” and stalling out nearby through the middle of next week. This means we won’t be quite as warm next week. We’ll be breezy at times, and we’ll keep the chance for scattered showers each day.

Upper air pattern next Wednesday

As we get closer to Memorial Day weekend, this system should slowly shift off the East Coast with high pressure replacing it.

Upper air pattern next weekend

This means we might become warmer for the holiday weekend, with highs in the 80s by then. These stalled systems are very tricky to time out, so be sure to check back with us for updates on any changes to the forecast.


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.