Heads up! Line of heavy rain to arrive late Thursday afternoon, evening

We’ll then turn colder Friday with strong wind gusts and mountain snow

ROANOKE, Va. – We’re tracking a strong cold front that will produce severe weather in the Southeast Thursday.

If there’s any chance of that happening here Thursday evening, it will be south of Highway 58 where the air will be warmer.

High temperature forecast for Thursday, 1/12/2023

The heaviest rain arrives in the New River Valley and Highlands between 4 and 6 p.m. - in the Roanoke Valley between 5 and 7 p.m. and in Lynchburg/Southside between 6 and 8 p.m.

FutureTracker - 7 p.m. Thursday

Once that line clears the area, we’ll stay gusty at times with occasional showers continuing.

FutureTracker around midnight Thursday into Friday

It takes a while for the colder air to move in from the northwest.

Once it does so, we’ll see off-and-on snow showers on the west-facing slopes. A few scattered bursts of snow/sleet will sneak east of the mountains at times Friday.

FutureTracker around 3 a.m. Friday

Most accumulation will be up on the west-facing slopes with a winter weather advisory in effect for some of those locations through Saturday morning.

Projected snow accumulation through Saturday morning, 1/14/2023

Regardless, it will turn very windy at times with gusts of 30-45 mph becoming likely Friday in areas along and west of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Wind speed and wind gust forecast for Friday, 1/13/2023

We’ll stay gusty at times heading into Saturday with highs in the 30s and 40s. Sunday will be a calmer day.

High temperature forecast for the weekend of 1/14 and 1/15/2023

After the weekend, our next chance of rain arrives next Tuesday.

Tracking another round of showers by Tuesday, 1/17/2023

The chance for winter weather (outside of some mountain snow Friday) is minimal over the next 7 days.

Download our app for the latest updates on our winter weather odds.


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.