ROANOKE, Va. – While it’s been a minute since we’ve had a completely dry day in our corner of the Commonwealth, rain and storm coverage has generally been trending down. The western mountains were the favored region for storms on Sunday and it appears today will be more of the same.
Look for scattered storms across the New River Valley and Highlands this afternoon. Storms will be isolated in Roanoke and limited in Lynchburg and Southside.
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Temperatures have been gradually on the rise and that trend will continue today.
You can expect most of us to be in the mid to upper 80s, with the Lynchburg area slightly hotter and the New River Valley slightly cooler.
A new heatwave is expected to begin in Roanoke, Southside and the Highlands on Tuesday and we’re forecasting it to last about three days in those regions.
It’s been a little while since we’ve hit the 90s in the Star City: about two weeks. In case you’re wondering, we’ve reached the 90-degree mark 40 times so far this year in Roanoke.
The tropics are at top of mind for many along the Gulf Coast this week. Ahead of Marco, tropical storm and hurricane warnings have been posted for Louisiana and Mississippi, while there are tropical storm watches in effect for a small portion of Alabama and Florida.
Marco is expected to make landfall in Louisiana tonight as a high-end tropical storm.
Laura is currently located over Cuba and will emerge in the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow. It could rapidly strengthen to a Category 2 or 3 hurricane and make landfall in southeast Texas or Louisiana Wednesday night.
Direct impacts from either storm appear unlikely in our area, however, I can’t rule out the possibility of some residual moisture from Laura enhancing our storm chances Friday and/or Saturday.