Summer storms develop Wednesday ahead of another taste of fall

ROANOKE, Va. – Humidity levels rise a little bit Wednesday, but not to the point they were pre-Ida. Still, it’ll be just enough to make things feel more like summer out there during the afternoon. High temperatures reach well into the 80s for most of the region.

In addition to the warmth and added dose of humidity, we have a front coming in from the west. This will help trigger showers and storms around and after lunchtime Wednesday. Most of what we see develop will be near and east of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Anything that does develop will have the potential to produce localized wind damage, along with a lot of lightning and heavy rain. This severe threat wraps up around 7 p.m.

We’ll still see some showers develop late Wednesday night into Thursday morning as our cold front swings through the area.

Behind that front, temperatures and humidity levels drop Thursday. We’ll see highs reach the 70s and lower 80s, while overnight lows plummet into the low to mid 50s (some upper 40s).

This should make for some very comfortable weather leading into the weekend’s events, like the Beaver Dam Sunflower Festival and Blue Ridge Rock Fest. We’ll start to heat things up in the afternoon by Sunday.

This is a sign of things to come throughout much of next week. With the jet stream farther north, we’ll turn hotter each day with lows in the 60s each night next week.

Thankfully, any signs of tropical mischief will stay away from our area. Larry goes up toward Newfoundland. Another storm that might become Mindy in the next few days will ride our cold front along the East Coast and away from us.