UPDATE 12:30 AM, 3/20: More of the same: Much warmer than normal, some showers and storms.
UPDATE 12:30 AM, 3/20: I’ll let this ride another day. Highs in the 70s, maybe some low 80s. Scattered showers and storms possible. After hitting 78 to set a record high on Monday, Blacksburg’s record March 20 high of 75 from 1968 may also be overtaken (if early showers don’t happen to stop it). Roanoke’s record of 83 from 1945 and 1968 probably stands. END UPDATE
UPDATE 11:50 AM, 3/19: The area of showers and storms affecting much of the region this morning has mostly dissipated. With the sun popping out, widespread highs in the 70s appear likely. Afternoon heating combined with thick moisture and an upper-level impulse sliding southeast from the Ohio Valley may fire a few scattered storms during the afternoon and early evening. END UPDATE
UPDATE 8:45 AM, 3/19: We’re starting off on the damp to downright soggy side this morning. Not only have fog and low clouds settled in to much of Southwest Virginia, but an area of showers and storms with some heavy rain has been affecting much of the area north and east of Roanoke. That’s a flip from much of the past several days when the action was mostly south and west of Roanoke. Some of the cells developing on the back end of the system in West Virginia may drag through the Roanoke and New River valleys later this morning. Click here for latest National Weather Service-Blacksburg radar. Temperatures this morning are already near or somewhat below the normal high temperatures for mid-March in the 50s (57 at Roanoke, for example, with a normal high of 59 — and normal low of 38) so the “much warmer than normal” part is on track again despite the rain and fog END UPDATE
Wednesday’s toasty highs in the mid 70s to low 80s could have easily been the start of a long period of similar high temperatures. But the last four days, instead, have had interference from upper-level disturbances from the west, a backdoor cold front from the northeast and a weak flow of cooler, moist air off the Atlantic. The result has been hard-to-predict periods of clouds and showers and rather erratic daily high temperatures. Highs Thursday through Sunday were 58, 69, 72 and 64 at Blacksburg and 69, 73, 75 and 66 at Roanoke – all above normal, though none of them as extreme as they could have been.
The leftover moisture from the past few days, some more disturbances moving in from the Ohio Valley and a persistent weak low hanging around the Outer Banks may trigger additional showers and storms the next few days. (Amounts up to a half-inch are projected the next 3 days in our area — also note on this map the 5-8 inches projected in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas with a major, slow-moving storm system there that will likely also trigger plenty of severe storms and some tornadoes.) This will again make projecting daily highs and rainfall chances a bit difficult — clouds and showers at any location on a given day can shave several degrees of highs, but then again, warmer highs at a given location can create more instability for afternoon showers and storms to develop. We are still under the effects of the warm dome of high pressure that has dominated the central and eastern U.S., so any day this week will easily reach the 70s and possibly some low 80s IF there is sufficient sunshine. That should be the general expectation each day through at least Friday — highs mostly in the 70s, maybe some low 80s, with some showers and storms possible any of those days to shave some degrees off the daily temperatures. It’s a summerlike pattern that is likely to continue through this week, with at least some signs it may change to a bit of a cooler springlike pattern by the weekend or early next week following a significant cold front passage.
March 18, 2012 - 11:30 PM
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Fireworks display scheduled at VT on Saturday midnight for Ring Dance. What does the weather forecast look like that for that? I am seeing 50% for that day. They can shoot in dampish weather but probably not a downpour.
The blooms on the Bradford Pear trees are in overdrive this year, or at least it seems like that. Almost like they are snow covered!
There is likely to be fairly strong cold front move through sometime around the weekend or early next week. The timing is a bit uncertain now. Ahead of that front, there could well be an enhanced period of showers/storms. Something to follow through the week until the timing is a little better pinned down.
Got lots of yard work done over the weekend. Trees Planted leaves and tree limbs picked up. Great weekend to be outside
54.3* and shaping up to be another dreary day. Sun will have to work overtime today.
Doug and Kevin: Many thanks for your answers. I finally realized why I was having so much trouble. I have been logging onto the blog page through the link on the lower left column of the RT home page. I was not seeing some of the same things you were describing. Kevin, I hope they can restore the recent threads section as it is the easy way for the computer challenged, like me. In the meantime, I can figure it out when I need too.
I hope today is as warm as predicted as I plan to spend the late morning hours washing the 140 lb. furry friend I share my home with. He will dry out better this afternoon if it is warm.
I think we still hit the 70s if sun comes out after this morning round of rain pushes past. Will be sticky and could boil up some new storms.
Temps this morning, as I note above, are already near the normal HIGHS for this time of year. So relative to normal it’s assured to be another “warm” day whether or not it feels like it.
By the way, Leo Lady: Another way you can call up the full blog if you come in through the link on the bottom left of the Roanoke.com gateway page (which links to the most recent entry, only) is to just click on my ugly mug at the top of the page!
Kevin: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
When it comes to computers, I like easy and that is easy for me.
The cells off to the NW of Roanoke that will drag through the area later are indicating slight probabilities upto half inch hail. Also noting some lighting hits on the same cells (via “lightningfinder app”)
This same grouping as Kevin noted has been coming out of the Ohio River Valley and all the way back to Columbus OH last night. Spotter reports back near Fairfield Couty OH had 1.75″ hail. My parents live near Parkersburg WV and they have been getting the train effect all night and into this morning.
I had plans to clean out my flower beds yesterday and do some yard work, but right after we got home from church it was like the heavens opened! I had standing water in my back yard for a while.
On Saturday afternoon we went up to Floyd and got a tiller, getting ready for my first “big” garden ever at my house.
Near the Doppler in Floyd County checking in this morning (2546 ft. elevation). Earlier, I was a little worried with all of the fog and low lying clouds we had if we would ever see the sun again. But have no fear – the sun is here!!! Yahoo! Time to dry out.
Hope to be outside in the garden today. The spinach and kale have popped up. Need to get a second planting in the ground.
Kevin…
re the storms that will get there later in week..
stalled out west of us a bit overnight..
forcasters missed its arrival here by several hours.
Bad timing for the afternoon arrivals DFW..
Plus 3 inches..up to 6 forecast NE of DFW..
Towards Myattland (ARK) no..not THE Ark..
But we-ll see.
Its a slow mover so many unhappy passengers this evening..
Had a flight hold for a gate 3 hours plus in St Louis yesterday
midday…3 consecutive hours plus of cloud to ground lightning
within 15 miles of the airport. They got really tired of looking at their seatmates and the inside of that airplane.
Hazy sunshine and 68 in Abingdon. Predicting temps near 80 today and tomorrow and talking of record highs. No rain here before Wed or Thurs. Our 1.20 last week is holding us just fine for now. It was cool this morning with lows around 40 – skies cleared last night.
Surprised no one has mentioned that it’s now exactly a month after the only significant evidence we had a “winter”: the Feb. 19 snowstorm.
Bring on the sun!
I have a large shaggy wet dog who needs to dry out. He is really ticked off at me right now, but he’s clean though!
Kevin-
With this possible cold front coming in this weekend/early next week, do you have any indication of just how cold it could get? We did a lot of early planting on the farm, and I would like to start planning in my head what I need to get ready for with the weather change.
Thanks!
Ralph: As of now, it does not appear to be a major freeze event or long-lasting cold snap. It may fall back closer to normal (50s highs/30s lows) for a day or two next week. At this point, it appears the overall pattern of warmer than normal weather is likely to continue on most days into early April. But as the warm high slips westward, there will be an increased chance its clockwise rotation will bring down a few more cold fronts than we’ve been seeing.
Well, I’m hoping this week to get the yard clean-up finished…and to get the first round of mowing done too, it’s shaggy. Also need to yank some weeds and turn the mulch and get the garden ready for planting, which I hope to do in the next week for the early stuff that can tolerate a chilly night or two.
Was in Salem earlier this morning and a pretty good batch of showeres moved off Fort Lewis Mt. Then on Tinker Creek around 9 AM. Not a drop here at the shack that I could tell.
Kevin, they changed the numbers. On slide #24, the 5 consecutive 3-month periods are now in blue…….they were all black last week because we did not yet have 5 consecutive periods of 0.50 or greater for the La Nina. Each value in those periods were adjusted upward either 0.10 or 0.20. Got a clue? I was expecting we would not know until early April that we had indeed been in an offical La Nina as defined by NOAA.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf
Even though temperature is trying to push toward 80 at Roanoke (76 at midafternoon) the March 19 daily high record is not in jeopardy. That was 90 degrees in 1945 — the only 90-degree March day in Roanoke’s recorded weather history.
Record low was 16 in 1993, six days after the BIG snow from the 1993 Superstorm.
Blacksburg’s low of 49 this morning is likely to set a warmest low record for 3/19. Previous mark was 48 set in 2003. It almost certainly wont’ get cooler than that by midnight.
Rick, this was absolutely a La Nina, although a weak one. The SSTs were right at -1.0 for many, many weeks, and I may have even seen a -1.1 for a weekly number once or twice. The most recent index on slide 24 is the DJF cycle, at -0.9. I bet the JFM cycle is still at least a -0.5, also, because of the colder weekly measurements back in January and most of February. If measurements were adjusted, then the older data you were looking at was incorrect and got corrected, I am pretty sure.
Roanoke did make 80 degrees this afternoon.
By the way, I broke my leg today, and am in quite a bit of pain. You all can guess what caused it …. the loooooooong limb I went way out on back in February (with the very cold March forecast) broke and rolled onto my leg on the ground. If any of you are overjoyed about this incredibly warm March, well, you have me to thank {JUST KIDDING!!!}.
A few of you are like me and would love a cool summer. Count on it. About middle of May I’ll go on record here that we will have the hottest summer ever, and that should take care of things. :>) :>) :>)
And Blacksburg set a record high of 78 today, beating the old 3/19 record of 74 set in 1982. The low of 49 was also a new record for warmest low for the date, beating 48 set in 2003.
The hourly forecast I brought to work did it again ….. jumped up and bit me on the arse. Listen to how awful the following TWC Hourly forecast was for Roanoke city:
Only 10% chance of rain through 11 AM, then jumping to 15% by noon, then really spiking to 40% chance of thunderstorms from 1:00 (really 12:30 PM) on.
THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: Started drizzling immediately after I loaded up the truck a bit before 9:00 and continued as I drove the 1/2 mile to the start of the route. Then mostly steady rain for most of the morning!! And how much afternoon rain fell on me??? ZIPPO!!! Mostly sunny!!!
At least I was able to remove the overshoes on my lunch break. And another plus was that I never broke out a sweat.
Hey, Leo Lady, why did you wash your behemoth …. er, dog today? Did he get into something very muddy or stinky? We were told not to wash our dogs unless they got into big mud or stench. When we have taken them to the kennels, even then we declined a bath most times. And they have had wonderful smelling fur nearly all the time.
We need to hear from clarkdocvet or others who know a lot about this. But they cannot be groomers (in my opinion)!! They have a vested interest in having dogs groomed and bathed often. I must admit that I have heard (but never read) that some breeds do need to be washed, otherwise their fur gets stinky.
Ridiculous, insane, outrageous, unbelievable, eye-popping, I-see-it-but-am-having-trouble-believing-it, etc. etc. etc. Through 18 days, March in Roanoke is “ALL OF THE ABOVE,” a monstrous 8.3 degrees warmer than normal!!!! And today’s high of 80 and “low” of mid-50s will grow it even more!!! Today will be close to or reach a +20!! Kevin, I have a challenge for you … and maybe I can do it myself. I wonder when the final statistics for March are calculated, how this month will compare with the Aprils of recent years. I would not be surprised if it (March 2012) ends up warmer than one or two of them.
Just to give you some idea, Doug … the 3 warmest Marches at Roanoke are warmer than the 7 coldest Aprils in the last century. This March looks likely to be in the top 3. The most recent cold April this March is likely to be warmer than is 1997 at 52.5 degrees. (Avg temp before today was 53.6)
I thought it was hot here, but I was browsing around a bit and happened upon the forecast for Manchester, Vermont. Not only is it suppose to be just as hot there (74-81-81), but their average high this time of the year is in the low 40′s! And the record highs for this week don’t get out of the 60′s so I assume at least three day’s records will be broken.
Roa10, thanks for that information. Back when I was in high school in eastern Mass. (Sept. 1965-June 1969), we had one early spring. It was one of the very few that I can remember from my first 28+ years in Massachusetts, March 1968. The local golf course opened during the last week of March, and was relatively dry, too, which can be the bigger issue that time of year (Late March and most of April are typically “mud season” up there). I remember playing “goof” as good ol’ Mr. Brand calls it, twice then. I think temps were in the upper 60s, and everyone was talking about how great it was to have mid-spring temps in a winter month (Hey, March IS a winter month … one of 4 … up there). For Vermont to have a 74-81-81 even earlier by a week is also insane.
If this incredible heat covering a huge part of the USA continues, and then we get a sudden BIG nosedive in temps over this same area in mid or (worse) late April, I worry that the effects on agriculture for the nation, not just regionally, could be fairly severe.
I just looked at the 6-10 and 8-14, and the incredibly warm temps continue, not just for us but even more so for the middle of the nation. On the 8-14 day, the only blue in the “Lower 48″ is a sliver of pale blue along the immediate California coastline. The bullseye for the warmth on that map is Iowa and each of the states that touches it …. 70% chance of being warmer than normal.
There is a mounting problem in the western U.S., and the southwestern states in particular …. DROUGHT!! From the western slice of Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle westward, bounded on the north by the southern borders of Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon, that 25% of the country is dominated by drought. And the outlook for nearly all of that huge chunk of acreage is to have the drought worsen.
I just looked at the NAO and AO outlooks. The AO is almost definitely going to continue very positive. The NAO will probably decrease some and get fairly close to neutral by 4-1-12, but still be positive. I still have trouble believing that after the NAO was positive nearly every single day throughout meteorological winter, not only did it NOT go negative nor even get close to neutral in March, but instead got another injection of steroids and went VERY positive this month. I am going to try to find the polar view maps and see what they show. I’ve got a feeling that if the heart of the Western Hemisphere is so warm, then large chunks of northern Europe and parts of northern Asia are very cold.
We have been outside most of the day and at 5 pm I checked the temperature here and it was 58 F with a humidity of 40. It was a really nice day to be in the garden.
Nurse Snow – when you came to Floyd for your tiller, did you travel on Rt. 221 and did you get to see the Doppler?
Kevin, please help this COLC. I cannot find where those neat maps of the polar regions are on the CPC website. Could you please post a comment with a link to it?? In advance, TYVM.
Joe, you having fun out your way yet???????
Working in the yard yesterday, it really felt more like an early summer evening, than the last day of winter. Glad to leave this winter behind now though, the two-week winter weater tease just wasn’t enough for my liking.
WD…
oh yes…indeed.
a lot of people with big eyes
on he way home last night and
cops should have been checking for
boat licenses on the roads.
The lightning was compressed in front of the
system just like most storms..
but the FAA reacted poorly . As did many.
They stopped traffic far too early.
The slow movement surprised nearly everyone.
The high pressure stayed very dominating east of us
and made this line just creep for hours less than 75 miles west of us
I think the modelers and forecasters thought itd break down earlier.
We stranded thousands of travellers last night. And it rained hard all night….will send a link to local news. I just have wet socks..and plan to buy a plastic handled umbrella.
Other John, I agree. What strange weather for the last day of winter. I am still concerned about what the early days of “spring” will hold for us.
Joe – I looked at radar this morning – OH MY GOSH!! What a batch of weather you have! Kevin, any chance those storms or at least that rain will make it here?
Heres a link for local news..
This Bacons place was where I used to get
B-fast..its about 3 miles from where I live.
What the paper didnt discuss in this piece was
the dozens of flights that never made it to DFW
last night, The airport ran out of gates.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/03/19/3821242/storms-knock-out-power-start-fires.html
Doug: I did not see your comment until this morning. First, keeping a dog clean is a good thing. Dogs carry parasites, allergens and other icky things in their fur. All dogs should be bathed on a regular basis. My dog is quite used to it as he is a retired show dog and therapy dog. During his working years, he was a regular visitor in Roanoke City Schools and occasional visitor at both Roanoke Memorial and Lewis Gale Hospitals. At that time I bathed him once a week. I now bathe him every two months or so, weather permitting. My boy is old now and I do not like bathing him when it is cold. I had an appointment this morning that I planned to take the dog with me so I wanted a clean, brushed and presentable dog. Yesterday’s high temperature was very helpful in drying out my boy so I could brush him out this morning. I like warm temperatures when I bathe the dog, but otherwise we both prefer winter, snow and colder weather.
Here is a link to the map Doug requested in his 9:40 p.m. comment last night. It’s the polar view of the 500 millibar heights over the Northern Hemisphere based on the European model, more or less current conditions as of 7 p.m. last night. It can give a pretty good idea where it is warm and cold right now.
http://blogs.roanoke.com/weatherjournal/files/2012/03/Euro0Z500mb0320.gif
As you can see from the blue/purple colors, there is a LOT of COLD air in much of the Northern Hemisphere EXCEPT for the eastern half of the U.S., where the yellow/orange color bulges very far north. So this excessive March heat the central and eastern U.S. is currently experiencing is not a hemisphere-wide event.
Kevin, with today being the state-wide tornado drill this morning, it got me to wondering…is there a good source for severe weather alerts that can be sent to mobiel phones? The NWS has a service, but they limit it to government and emergency management folks…and I don’t care for the services offered by local news stations, since it’s hard to avoid extra junk getting through. So I thought maybe you’d have some suggestions. Since many of us aren’t always around a TV or radio where the EAS alerts can be recieved, it would amaze me if some sort of text broadcast of alerts wasn’t available somewhere from the NWS.
Ooops – have been outside and looked up and saw this huge thunder cloud north of us. Came inside and checked radar and saw it was heading this way. Inside waiting out the storm.
Thunder in Blacksburg…storm to the NW of town.
Deluge in Willis, western Floyd Co. Of course the car windows were open.
Unless you are in Maine or the western USA mountains, you ain’t gonna find snow.
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/snow_model/images/full/National/nsm_depth/201203/nsm_depth_2012032005_National.jpg
Starting to hear rumbles of thunder to the west.
The digital thermometer in my house is giving an outside reading of 86 degrees right now. I’m not sure how accurate that is but it sure feels like it’s that hot out there. I took my dogs for a walk and could NOT believe how hot it was. I had to remind myself that it was only March 20th.
The radar loop for this exact time (3:40 pm) is fascinating. Storms from the south are advancing north to Roanoke Airport. Storms from the north are advancing south toward Roanoke Airport.
Clash of the titans will ensue.
Outflow-driven pulse storms. No steering winds, no shear. Just like July or August.
Hey Rigel – looks like more rain heading your way – better put up those car windows!!! Hope you dried out from earlier.
Have had off and on showers all afternoon along with lots of rumbles of thunder. Happy Springtime!
watching big storm going into roanoke from here on c-burg mtn. really dark cloud wind and some rain oops lighting ,,,, gota go!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rick, that’s a long way from 2010[maybe] when I think every state but HOW-WHAY-YA had snow cover after X-mas. I’ll take it. And no, I haven’t applied for membership in Griggs,Oakey and Co.
Caribou, Maine has snowpack … but still hit 73 today. Previous record high for 3/20 was 50. This is truly historic March warmth.
Trevor here in Christiansburg reporting rain, hail, and sunshine mixed in. Oh yeah, some thundering and lightning is thrown in for good measure. It has been going on for twenty minutes now.
Blacksburg set another record high today, 77, beating the March 20 record from 1968. Roanoke hit 81, 2 degrees short of the daily record.
Poor ole wood stove shore had a long face today. Been a week since it saw duty, and another 7 months before it goes back to work full time. Told him not to worry, that a part time job would come along in the next month. Think that cheered him up some. My back told him to quit his whinnin.
Hey, Rick or Kevin or Quags or wd or anyone ….. any chance of posting the North American snow cover map from 3-20-10?? That would make another fascinating comparison.
Leo Lady, thanks for your reply. What kind of dog is your big guy?? I bet he is huge and lovable. In my 17 years as a letter carrier, plus being interested A LOT in dogs, I can absolutely say that in my experience, the medium-sized and big dogs tend to be friendlier than the tiny ones. That is a generalization, definitely not true of all dogs. Many tiny dogs I have met have been incredibly friendly, too, and some behomoths can be mean, and some of them have taken one look at me or any letter carrier and thought of one word: ……. “DINNER!!” :>) :>) :>)
And Leo Lady, I definitely disagreed with a couple of things you wrote about the need to bathe dogs, but let’s just agree to disagree. And I readily admit that any dog that is going to be a show dog needs to be bathed.
Kevin, thank you very much for posting the polar view of things. I was shocked. Just by taking a gander at it, one can tell that it poses more than one major threat to the eastern USA. If something (like a big switch in NAO, which is STILL not in the foreseeable future, unless the outlooks changed radically from yesterday to today) happens that allows that colder air to come south or SE or East, we could get a major cooldown. We all hope that the events of April 6-10, 2007 are not repeated.
Just emptied .30 from the rain gauge since 6 P.M. this evening. We had an awesome slow soaking rain here between Rocky Mount and the lake. Seemed to be either dying thunderstorm rain or thunderstorm fringe rain since there was lightning and thunder all around, yet no wind nor rain. Let the mowing begin!
Other John: I am signed up for the Weather Channel Alerts service. It’s a free service that sends text messages and e-mails when there is a severe weather warning for your county. It works well, and there are no ads that come with it. I decided to sign up last year after the Pulaski tornado.
Doug, the USA snow cover map for March 20, 2010 would not be that impressive. If you recall, early March saw a huge warm-up and all snow in our area was gone by then. Now, a March 1st map would look very impressive.
Snow map, March 20, 2010:
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/snow_model/images/full/National/nsm_depth/201003/nsm_depth_2010032005_National.jpg
Only 7 percent more of the nation covered than currently — 27 percent to 20 percent
Here is the web site for current/archived snow cover maps:
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/
Other John: I must admit I don’t have an immediate answer to your query today, and welcome others’ answers such as Jason in Riner.
I probably should have mentioned the statewide tornado drill today. I had some family matters to attend to today, and tend to focus heavily on current/near future weather rather than awareness events. But I should have mentioned it today.
I just looked at the IFLOWS listings for SW Virginia, and immediately got a bad surprise. At the very first screen, one of the sites was in red. In western Wythe County, the Crawfish Valley site is in flash flood warning status, having received 1.81 inches of rain since 7 PM. It is just north of I-81 (forgive me, I consider I-81 to basically be an east-west highway from Roanoke westward) and WNW of Wytheville.
Doug, I am all for something tripping the catch to let the cool air drop this way. If Sunday is a taste of what’s to come, it will definitely be a “I hate summers guts” summer. I am all for spring weather, and enjoying being outside, but Sunday was already verging on uncomfortable, and only March 18. What did not help is very limited tree canopy yet to provide any shade.
Doppler Carol alluded to the following, but I don’t think anyone explicitly (spelling? I had to try that one about 3 times) said it here … today was the first day of traditional spring. But we all know that very late spring/early summer has been in force here for most of March, and for an enormous chunk of the eastern 50-60% of the “Lower 48″ also.
Lots and lots of very strong thunderstorms well east of Roanoke and the Blue Ridge this evening. Bedford was hit hard earlier according to Jay Webb, and then Campbell County and now the NE corner of Pittsylvania and the northern edge of Halifax County are really getting hit hard. Unfortunately, no IFLOWS sites over there, at least none that I know of. Jay showed Danville having already received a bit more than an inch, and will get more over the next two hours or so. Appomattox had a flash flood watch or warning, too.
Roanoke jumped to 8.8 degrees warmer than normal this month through yesterday. The previous 7 days have been, in order, starting with last Tuesday: +22, +20, +14, +17, +17, +14, and +19. 35 years ago I had the misfortune (from my point of view) to live in the Greater NYC area for about 20 months. One retailer … “Crazy Eddie” … had television ads in which he would come on and start screaming about his wonderfully low prices on stereo equipment and television sets, and finish by yelling, “Come on over to Crazy Eddie’s!!! Where the prices are INSANE!!!!!” And stare bug-eyed at the camera. Well, welcome to the eastern half of the USA, where the March temperatures are INSANE!!!!
Back to IFLOWS: Talk about an isolated but incredibly severe t-storm … Crawfish Valley in western Wythe got that 1.81 inches, but the other 4 sites in Wythe got basically nada, if the IFLOWS sites are working correctly. 2Way in the town of Wytheville … zip. Cedar Springs got 0.08 and Sand Mountain got 0.04, both being generally south of Wytheville.
Crawford’s Ridge in extreme NW corner of Roanoke County (almost in Montgomery) got 0.75 and Mason’s Cove well north of Salem got 0.67 inches, but most of that rain fell this afternoon, not this evening. More in separate comment
Both Daleville and Carvin Creek in Botetourt County got about 0.6 inches of late afternoon rain, but again were the lone sites with plentiful amounts in their county (again, assuming that IFLOWS is working correctly).
FYI, I did not get all that much, roughly 0.25 inches. But better than nothin’. For a while during late afternoon, it sounded like an artillery attack was going on, but with zero hits, so to speak. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever actually get raindrops here, because even though there was plenty of thunder and lightning, no rain for quite a while. At that time it reminded me of that famous quote, by Macbeth (I had to look it up), …… “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Hey, wd, I bet you will enjoy the following. Macbeth’s quote referred to “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Like some weather forecasts we have heard ….. definitely including a few of my own?? The quote could probably be most appropriately applied to most politicians, right gang???
Thanks Kevin and Jason…I saw the service from TWC, so it’s good to hear from someone who uses it. I also find it valuable to get weather warnings for the counties immediately surrounding Pulaski/Montgomery, so I can get advance notice of potential severe weather coming my way…I’ll have to see if I can do that, especially with me being an avid gardener, golfer, and camper.
Other John – I have a live, resident early warning system named Frannie (from Ms. Frantic), a black lab who is severely thunder phobic and can hear it long before I can. If she is frantic, trembling, pacing and drooling I go check the radar images and see how far away the storm is and if it is headed for us.
haha Rigel, that’s not a bad system. I’m pretty allergic to dogs though, so that’s unfortunately a no-go for me.