ROANOKE, Va. – We are shaping up for a great holiday weekend thanks to the sunshine and moderate temperatures through both Saturday and Sunday.
The calm weather we have to start the day continues into the afternoon, and the sun starts shining more and more. Temperatures top out at a very seasonable high in the mid-to-upper 50s. These are much more typical highs for this part of fall than the 70s and 80s we had earlier in the week.
Cooler afternoons also means cooler mornings. Temperatures fall close to the freezing point again early in the week. Even with warmer weather by Wednesday lows are still on the chilly side.
Friday’s rain helped us out a bit, but the dry conditions across our area are done no favors by the sunshine this week.
Each time the Drought Monitor came out in fall the spread of worse drought has grown in our region. This week follows that pattern with some counties in the extreme category.
Most of our counties are in a burn ban, but even if yours isn’t the conditions are very dry throughout the area. Any small spark could use the abundance of dry leaves and already dry ground to quickly spread.
Rain stays away for much of the week ahead. Apart form some sprinkles on Sunday we are dry and sunny through the middle of the week.
Closer to Thanksgiving conditions are likely to bring us more showers. We need a lot of rain to get back on track with a yearly average, but it’s unlikely that we get there given how dry much of this month stays.