Sally dumping feet of rain on parts of Gulf Coast; remnant rain expected here

Sally will bring more rain to the southern half of our area by Thursday

Additional rain expected from Sally along the Gulf Coast

ROANOKE, Va. – The eye wall of Hurricane Sally continues to lash the Alabama Gulf Coast and Florida Panhandle Wednesday morning, with reports of 12-18″ of rain already. More is on the way, as the storm crawls at 2 mph. Life-threatening flooding and extreme wind are both ongoing and expected to continue in these areas throughout the day Wednesday.

Here at home, we continue to see the haze brought on my wildfire smoke out west. This isn’t a concern to air quality or your health, but is something you will continue to notice.

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Tracking wildfire smoke Wednesday afternoon

This will keep our afternoon temperatures around 70-75° after a chilly start to the day. Clouds from Sally increase later on and especially at night, as the storm weakens over the Southeast.

Moisture will ride into the area Thursday and could bring on some heavy rain in Southside as soon as Thursday morning.

FutureTracker - Thursday morning

Periods of rain will continue to develop Thursday as the remnants of Sally to our south team up with a cold front just to our north.

FutureTracker - Thursday afternoon

Rain from Sally tapers off as we head into Friday morning. The higher rain totals will be closer to the storm, so for us that means areas south of U.S. 460. The farther north you go, the lesser rain totals will be.

Forecast rain totals for Thursday and early Friday due to the remnants of Sally

The front that meets up with Sally will push the storm east. Behind it, the air turns much cooler. We’re talking highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s this weekend, which is more typical of mid-October.

FutureTracker - fall weather arrives again this weekend

This should make for really nice weather during the final weekend of the Sunflower Festival in Buchanan.

Forecast for the Sunflower Festival - Sept 19 and 20, 2020

Heading into next week, we expect more of the same with a possible warm-up by midweek.


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.