Summer slowly starts to steal the spotlight the rest of the week

ROANOKE, Va. – Yet again, most of the area starts out in the grey Tuesday morning. However, clouds gradually decrease as the wedge loosens its grip on our weather. This will allow our temperatures to rise more than they did Monday afternoon.

The jet stream continues rising to the north throughout the week, allowing warmth to build into the Eastern U.S. Colder air stays bottled up in the Rockies and Pacific Northwest...for now.

Thursday’s high temperatures will be close to record levels, especially in Roanoke, Lynchburg and Southside.

That’s expected to be the case Friday afternoon as well, when temperatures rise an additional degree or two.

Our next cold front arrives Saturday, bringing some showers through the area from midday through the afternoon. After that, the wind turns gusty.

That’ll cool things off from west to east, so be ready for changeable weather if you’re heading to the Tech vs. Pitt game.

The rest of the weekend will be very fall-like. Expect a sunny Sunday with highs in the 60s. Monday and Tuesday mornings next week will be crisp.

This is exactly the weather needed to get the leaf-changing process to speed up. (Hopefully the wind Saturday evening doesn’t knock too many off.) Here’s the latest report from The Foliage Report.

We’re at peak at Snowshoe, and we’re getting close to that in places like the Grayson Highlands State Park too.