Far from over! Summer humidity, storms and heat all gradually return this next week

After a break from the humidity, it returns along with the chance for more storms the next few days.

Projected rain totals between Wednesday and Saturday

ROANOKE, Va. – After a few spring-like mornings, the humidity is slowly creeping its way back into the picture. This, along with a front nearby, is going to trigger more showers and storms to develop after 12 or 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Rain chances throughout the day Wednesday

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Afternoon temperatures Wednesday will range from the mid 70s in the New River Valley to upper 70s in Roanoke to low to mid 80s in Lynchburg and Southside.

By Thursday, we’ll see similar temperatures but storms will mostly be confined to the New River Valley. With our front to the south, the air will rise most in the higher elevations Thursday afternoon.

FutureTracker - Thursday afternoon

Friday and Saturday, however, could get pretty stormy at times. An area of low pressure to our southwest will swing some Gulf moisture our way, which will once again set off scattered showers and thunderstorms each afternoon and evening. We expect the coverage of storms to be a little greater Friday than Saturday.

Upper air pattern later this week

As we approach Sunday and early next week, the pattern above us flattens out. This means minimal chances for storms and typical summer heat returning. We could once again return to the 90s by next Monday or Tuesday.

Temperature trend for 8/19 to 8/23/2020

Tropics update

While that’s going on at the home front, we are monitoring two storms in the tropics. Each has a high chance of developing into a tropical storm within the next few days, at which point we would have Laura and Marco.

Model tracks for two possible tropical storms

The one in the Caribbean is most likely to move closer to Mexico, but perhaps into the Gulf of Mexico too (white lines abovE). The one that’s farther east will have to be watched for the U.S. There’s no clear center to that storm, which means that forecast models are struggling with where to send it. Any possible impact would be in the early to middle part of next week.


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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