Cooler air has arrived, and this morning, so have much-needed showers for many
UPDATE 7:40 AM: As radar shows, a band of showers has developed through much of the region, with some locations especially to the southwest of the Roanoke and New River valleys getting some rather generous amounts of rain topping an inch this morning. A cool, damp day appears to be on tap — it might not even make 80 where there are abundant showers and clouds this morning. Overall rain amounts this week probably will not be the multiple inches projected areawide a couple of days ago, but many are getting some welcome showers today after a hot, dry period, and some especially south and southwest of Roanoke are getting the rain they missed on Monday. END UPDATE
Sluggish fronts sinking southward in midsummer just aren’t that reliable. Last night, the front failed to push as far south as expected, and that left us with a somewhat hotter day than projected — 92 at Roanoke, the 12th straight 90-plus day, starting June 28. Now, it appears it might sink just a little farther south an earlier thought, taking the best chances of rain with it. Rainfall amounts over the next couple of days are projected to generally be .25 to .50 inch in scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms, with a little more down toward the Virginia-North Carolina line. Stretch that out to 5 days, and the map doesn’t show nearly as much real estate in the southern half of Virginia in the 2-4-inch colors as it did over the weekend. Totals for the week ahead appear to be largely under 2 inches, and much of that may come late in the week with a resurgence of moisture on southerly winds as high pressure bringing the cooler air in slips out to sea.
The heat wave-busting cooler air has arrived on northerly to northeasterly winds behind the cold front, with highs only in the upper 70s to lower 80s projected over most of our area the next 3 or 4 days. Cooler air is more stable, though, so we won’t have quite as much heat to boil up afternoon showers and storms. Still, being as close to the front in the Carolinas as we are, waves moving along the front and modest daytime heating will have the potential to develop some rounds of showers and storms each day this week.
July 9, 2012 - 11:29 PM
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Color me slightly less than surprised. I had a sinking feeling that the HPC amounts were overly generous…and after a week if no measurable rain, I get the distinct feeling that this week will disappoint in my neck if the woods. I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve heard this song before and I know how it goes…
We have 1.40″ since about 1:45am and still going. The way the precip is lined up outta Kentucky, I think we could get another inch this morning.
Just saw on CNN that the past 12 months have been the warmest on record for the U.S. since records dating to 1895. Just paid my electricity bill and was surprised to see that June had less usage than either April or May but also that the average temperature listed for June was 61 degrees….last year it was 71 degrees. I finally turned on the AC in July.
It was dry yesterday in Hokieburg but is slow and drippy this morning.
Well, we’re finally getting something today, but being on the northern fringe of the rain, it probably won’t add up to a whole lot. Something is better than nothing though, and my parched yard and garden will gladly accept whatever we can get today. It was a pleasant sound to wake up and hear heavy rain, though unlike Rick, ours didn’t start until well after 6am.
Doubting Thomas was proven wrong this morning. Heavy rain is falling over far SW VA. NWS reports over two inches for part of Washington Co and two more on the way. What a blessing.
Radar showing some really heavy rain west of I-77 now, expanding some north and east some. Let’s see how far that stretches later as the morning progresses.
It seems to be hanging in there…been raining steadily here for the last 45 min to an hour. Temp dropped too. That is a welcome change for sure! My toddler granddaughter who is in town isn’t happy about not being able to go outside.
Conveyor belt of showers this morning in Pulaski. Heavy at times. Approaching 1.5″ since midnight.
Fickle summer fronts. Glad this one has decided to bounce some good rains into SW Virginia.
Interesting to see what temps end up this afternoon. Roanoke is 68 at 10 a.m. If showers persist well into day, I could see it floating around 70 — which would be more than 30 degrees cooler than the afternoon 2 days ago.
Sun has popped out here in Rocky Mount and both thermometers I have here say 80 degrees. We had a quarter inch of rain last night and another quarter since daybreak.
The rain stopped a couple hours ago up here, but at least we got something before the rain started to fizzle out. I did some crunching, and we’ve actually been running a rainfall deficit this entire year, save 2 days in May following one of the last substantial rain events in my way, which has been followed by us bdropping to a more than 2.5″ deficit on the year. But, because September-December had each month run above-normal, to the total tune of almost 5 inches, the deficits in precipitation from January and Feburary were not really noticed, followed by slightly above-normal March and April…and a barely less-than-normal May.
But, the lax rainfall since mid-May, combined with the recent heat, have taken a solid toll on things. I’ve lost another azalea…I’m thinking I just have no luck with them, I’ve lost half of the ones I planted originally now. And our vegetable garden has struggled, even with manual watering. I’ve stopped trying to water the lawn since it’s now established over the past couple of years, so it’s gone partly dormant and crunchy. This week may perk it back up though, if we have a few more days like today with some soaking rain and cooler temps.
My total from 2:00am to now is 1.75″. More would be fine, but it looks dryish for maybe a few hours.
Glad the heat is gone! However, we have had no rain the last 2 days after the hpc was calling for us to have over an inch. Its very dry here in Greene once again and we could use some much needed rain. What is the chance the front lifts back north and gives us some much needed rain?
The front won’t be coming back north, Jared. It’ll wash out somewhere in the Carolinas. When that happens, moisture may rush northward for several days, but it will be spotty showers and storms, not a general rain.
It indeed was nice to wake up to the sound of rain running in the gutters this morning. We had light rain all morning and ended up with “0.33″ inches. The sun is out now and there has been a slight breeze blowing. I know we could use a couple more days of rain but I will take what we get.