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 A fairly substantial rain, even heavy at times, is occurring across Southwest Virginia this morning as the first part of a two-part rain system moves through. While the best upper-level energy is to the northwest, it is close enough to pull in significant Gulf of Mexico moisture, and thunderstorms to the south and east have not cut off moisture flow as was thought might happen. We will see the continuous rainfall end later today, though fog, drizzle and very light rain might occur overnight. The second part of this rain event will occur Friday night and Saturday as new upper-level energy digs in, accompanied by an approaching cold front. It appears that rain totals between 1 and 2 inches may be widespread with these combined systems, so not a bad rain for still needy dry areas. Early next week promises our stiffest shot of Arctic air yet, with the possibility that a day or two next week will struggle to make 40. Tuesday, at this point, looks like one of those windy days with snowflakes in the air ... snow showers in the mountains, and off and on flurries even into the Roanoke Valley.

Officially ... Roanoke did barely make it to freezing at 32 on Friday, so Oct. 31 will go down as our "first freeze" for the 2008-09 cool season.

Saturday will not be so cold -- in fact, it will be downright warm after a chilly start, possibly topping 70. A weak cold front will pass through Saturday night, so our temperatures will back off a little on Sunday and Monday. Still, this week looks to be pretty warm with highs primarily in the 60s.

It looks like another narrow escape from an official freeze at Roanoke Regional Airport, with a low of 33 this morning. If it was 33 at 6 feet up, where the thermometer is, you can bet is was below freezing at ground level on a cold, clear night with no wind, which allows the cold air to sink. This will be one of those autumns where the official first freeze date won't bear actual reality -- the date will end up being sometime in November, most likely, but we've really had at least four mornings where temperatures were likely at freezing or below almost everywhere.

Regardless ... it will be hard to beat the weather for high school football and Halloween trick-or-treating tonight, with clear skies, and temperatures generally in the 50s during the time folks will be outside. A slow warmup is under way, but it will be very slow, gradually increasing into next week.

Though almost everyone around did make it to freezing this morning, effectively ending the region's growing season, the Roanoke Regional Airport appears to have again stalled just above freezing at 34, meaning that Roanoke has, officially at least, still not experienced its first freeze of the season. Lows of 35 were recorded on Oct. 20 and 23; the low was 37 on Oct. 19 and 38 on Wednesday. But I would bet most folks in the Roanoke Valley did see a temperature of 32 or below at least briefly early this morning.

In a weird twist ... some locations in Florida, and we're not just talking the northern edge of the Panhandle, have gone on the record books with an earlier freeze than Roanoke. Ocala, Fla., is one of those.

Some of our readers have reported snow in the New River Valley this morning. The ski resort areas of eastern West Virginia got quite a nice little coating of snow ... take a look at photos from Snowshoe and Whitegrass. Meanwhile, a freeze warning is in effect tonight for the Roanoke Valley, Southside Virginia and points eastward ... counties where not every spot has fallen to freezing yet this year. While the Roanoke Regional Airport seems to have a way of floating above freezing when everyone else is 32 or below,  it would be pretty safe to say that the area's growing season, what's left of it, will be completely over after the next two cold mornings.

It is going to get cold and windy in the Monday-Wednesday time frame, as the first real shot of Arctic air moves in. There will likely be snow showers in the mountains of West Virginia and far western Virginia, and a few flurries may make it into the New River Valley. I wouldn't even rule out a flake or two in the Roanoke Valley early Tuesday or early Wednesday. But this will be a short-lived shot of cold air. By week's end, a large dome of warm air will begin building eastward, and by the 6-10-day period, the Climate Prediction Center map of 6-10-day temperatures looks mighty red, indicating a likelihood of above-normal temperatures over much of the country.

Now that we're in for what looks to be a prolonged period of temperatures near normal (slowly warming above normal, but probably not for a week) and, unfortunately, VERY dry weather, with no new tropical systems in sight, this would be a good time to take a breather and ask you a question.

Do you have a weather question you would like to have answered in a future Weather Journal column?

I'll steal a cue from Tom Angleberger, our What's On Your Mind guy, and open the floor to weather questions. Either leave a comment below or e-mail me. Please let me know your name and where you're from.

It may be a few weeks before I get the column out with the answers to some or all of your questions (depending on how many I get), but, unless I'm buried beyond belief, I'll try my best to get everyone an answer.

Hurricane Ike has come ashore, slowly weakening over east Texas, but still a hurricane. It will take some time to assess the damage in the Houston-Galveston area, and see how many people may have perished or need rescue. Early reports indicate the damage is considerable and widespread. Power is out for millions and some won't get it back for weeks. Click here for the latest on Ike from the Associated Press.

It looks like that Ike's remnants will move northeast well north of us , soaking the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. But we could yet get some needed rain next week from an upper-level low moving across the South interacting with a stalled front. We'll keep an eye on that.

Meanwhile ... it's going to be unseasonably hot in Southwest Virginia, with temperatures in Roanoke near or just above 90 likely today and Sunday. This is a result of strong high pressure overhead that acted to deflect Ike south and west, pushing it toward the western Gulf of Coast instead of hitting the Southeast U.S. But much cooler weather appears to be on the way later this week.

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What does it take to get an inch of rain in Roanoke these days?

The Roanoke Regional Airport received .57 inch before midnight Sunday and .42 inch after midnight, for a total of .99 inch over the weekend. Roanoke has not officially received at least an inch of rain in any 24-hour period … or, any 48-hour period … since Oct. 26, the last of a 3-day period that produced more than 5 inches in Roanoke.

A rain a single-hundredth short of an inch was still helpful, especially coming only a day separated from getting .78 inch on Thursday. Even though we largely missed a couple of forecasted shots of rain in the middle, most of Southwest Virginia got 1-3 inches during the last 4 days.

But we’re still about 4 inches below normal for the year to date in Roanoke, and the three years before have each come in 3-12 inches below normal.

In the extended entry below is a National Weather Service-Blacksburg listing of 24-hour rainfall totals around the area ending at noon today:

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