Summer Friday with a “Septober” feel Saturday

The wedge sends us from summer stickiness Friday to gloomy, fall temperatures Saturday

Feeling like October on Saturday

ROANOKE, Va. – The summer warmth and stickiness that we had Thursday carries over into Friday. We’ll be south of a front that’s sagging down from the north. This means we expect highs in the 80s with fairly high humidity too.

That, combined with this front, will give us the chance for scattered showers and thunderstorms throughout the afternoon and evening. Once again, not everyone is going to get wet.

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FutureTracker - Friday afternoon

Once this front settles south of the region, the clouds become thicker and some fog and drizzle develop into Saturday.

FutureTracker - Saturday morning

This is a pattern known as the wedge, when a northeast wind traps the cool air and clouds up against the mountains. Expect high temperatures to be about 10-15° below where they should be by Saturday. Some pockets of drizzle will be possible, especially in the first half of the day.

What the wedge means for our weather Saturday

I wouldn’t necessarily cancel all plans, especially with the Sunflower Festival happening this weekend in Buchanan. The most substantial rain will be to our south.

Sunflower Festival forecast for 9/12/2020

We’ll be warmer by Sunday afternoon, with the wedge breaking up by then. This will make room for a weak cold front to come through. This could produce a few storms, especially in the mountains, by Sunday afternoon.

FutureTracker - Sunday afternoon

Once this front clears the area, we’ll notice humidity levels drop off next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dew point trends for the next four days

Highs will be in the 70s each day with lows each night in the 50s, as we enter the final days of summer.

Tropics Update

The tropics continue the historic pace for the 2020 season. Paulette and Rene are of no concern to the U.S., but Bermuda is unfortunately a sitting duck. Paulette is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it passes the island early next week.

Tropical tracker as of 9/11/2020

The National Hurricane is also tracking four other systems that could develop within the next few 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.