2008.07.30
A stormy late afternoon and early evening on the way?
Regional radar at 2:30 p.m., courtesy of the National Weather Service
Thunderstorms appear to be organizing over parts of eastern Kentucky and the far southwest corner of Virginia northward into southern West Virginia. These storms have generally been moving east, though some southeast trajectory has been noted at times. Some severe thunderstorm warnings have already been issued. These clusters of storms bear watching into the evening for the Roanoke and New River valleys, as well as surrounding areas of Southwest and Southside Virginia. We've seen something similar several times this summer, as recently as this past Monday, where clusters of storms develop in this same general area to our west and then move eastward, often accelerating as they move east. Heat and humidity (92 temperature, 63 dew point in Roanoke at 2 p.m.) are sufficient to intensify storms that may move eastward over the mountains today, but there are a few obstacles to overcome, like the drying-out downslope winds out of the west and northwest, and possibly some remainder of dry air aloft that squelched most of Tuesday's storm potential. I'll keep an eye out on it the rest of today.
As always, if you have notable weather where you are, please e-mail me or leave a comment below.
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I'm sitting at the office in Blacksburg and the sky looks dark to our north, and the radar shows a storm just went over my house in New River. It looks like we'll get a more solid batch later this evening after 6...if it holds up.
Comment by Other John — July 30, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
It's definitely not as organized as some of the storms we've had this summer, but a couple of heavier cells are in there (about 5:20 p.m.), one near Wytheville, one about Covington/Clifton Forge ... storms seem to be moving a little south of due east ... the Clifton Forge cell might scrape the northern Roanoke Valley in about an hour, more in Botetourt County ...'
Sometimes it seems like these storms take the same tracks day after day ...
Comment by Kevin Myatt — July 30, 2008 @ 5:18 pm