High heat presses on as storm chances remain limited

The heat index may approach triple digits in parts of the area come Friday afternoon

FutureTracker heat index for Friday afternoon

ROANOKE, Va. – If you’re looking for colder weather, you might want to head toward Mt. Rainier this week.

🔥 The heat ain't going anywhere, and it may only get hotter by next week! ❄️ If that's not your cup of tea, I'd suggest going to Mt. Rainier...

Posted by Chris Michaels WSLS 10 News on Wednesday, 8 July 2020

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If not, get used to the heat. It’s summer time in Virginia!

Thursday’s temps will be around 85-90°, but Friday will heat up just a couple degrees more. Combine that with the humidity, and it might feel like 95-100° in some parts of the area Friday afternoon.

The only hope of cooling down comes in the form of hit-or-miss showers and thunderstorms. This, as we track an area of low pressure east of Wilmington, North Carolina. The National Hurricane Center has placed an 80% chance on this storm becoming ‘Fay’ soon.

Odds of tropical development in the next 2-5 days

Whether or not that storm gets a name has little-to-no impact on our weather. We’re on the west side of this storm, which means most of the area will be dry Thursday afternoon. The exception to that may be the mountains of West Virginia and areas near US-29 Thursday afternoon. That’s about it.

FutureTracker - Thursday afternoon

By Friday, a separate system from the west teams up with our heat and humidity to provide a slightly better chance of late day storms. The best chance comes between 4 and 10 p.m. (toward the latter part of that time frame for Lynchburg and Southside).

FutureTracker - late Friday afternoon

Anything that forms Friday may contain high wind gusts, hail, heavy rain and/or frequent lightning.

Make sure to download our app for the latest updates, radar and alerts.

Heading into the weekend, we may see just a few spotty storms Saturday. The better chance Sunday would be in the mountains later in the day. The heat continues, with highs in the upper 80s and lower 90s.

5-day high temperature trend

It’s entirely possible that we get even hotter by the middle of next week. We’ll be tracking an area of high pressure anchored over the central U.S. If we avoid any significant rain or storms, temps may rise well into the 90s next Wednesday and beyond.

Stay tuned.


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.

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