UPDATE 9:30 AM: Same song, umpteenth verse: Hot, chance of storms
UPDATE 9:30 AM: Briefly recapping last night’s storms, severe reports included trees blown down at Tazewell and Saltville, wires blown down at Narrows in Giles County, a tree blown down at a campground at Grayson Highlands State Park, a 64 mph gust recorded at New River Valley Airport at Dublin and 59 mph gusts at Blacksburg. An earlier wave of storms at midday Sunday also blew a tree onto a person at Rural Retreat Lake, blew trees and power lines down at Hillsville, and produced several large hail reports. These are certainly not all the severe weather incidents that occurred, but a short summary of those reported to the National Weather Service. (Blue dots at left are high wind reports, green dots are large hail reports; you can see the entire map and list of severe reports for Sunday linked here). In addition, Appalachian Power is reporting new power outages from Sunday storms, especially near Wytheville and Woodlawn.
Good news today: There is no obvious upper-level impulse that would cause storm clusters to form in the Ohio Valley and move southeastward. The air has also largely stabilized after by Sunday night storms. Our region is NOT in a slight risk zone for severe weather by the Storm Prediction Center — rated only at 5 percent that a storm with severe wind will occur within 30 miles of any given point today. But it will get very hot today — upper 90s to near 100 is possible for Roanoke and points south and east, and 90s just about everywhere else beneath the high ridgetops. There is always a chance of locally developing afternoon convection when it’s this hot, and any of that could become severe for a short time with locally damaging winds. END UPDATE
We continue the next couple or three days — perhaps longer — with the same old, same old. It will be hot — lots of 90s, not as many triple-digit temperatures, but more humidity since we’ve had a little rain. Each day will have a chance of storms — perhaps some that boil up locally in the heat and humidity, but also a chance that more form in the Ohio Valley and dive southeastward as we’ve seen both Friday night and this past night. Long range, there continue to be substantial signs that the core of the heat dome will move back west, maybe even as far as the Pacific Northwest eventually, but it’s going to take some time, at least a week, maybe 10 days. When it shifts west, cooler air will build in. Until then, here’s a cheer to all the power crews out working in the heat to get more and more A/C’s running.
July 2, 2012 - 1:37 AM
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Yes, those power crews are some of the heroes of the day here. Our power came back on yesterday afternoon.
Low temperature this morning 59 F. Storm was gone by 3:30 am. Lots of rain but automated rain gauge did not work and measure total rainfall.
Really longing for winter here! What a tease that cool June weather was up until last week.
Last night’s storm was a fireworks show with a bit of strong wind and thankfully some rain! Left it refreshingly cool this AM but I know that will transfer to hot and humid later. Doesn’t look like we had any damage. Still no power. I hear Bburg and C’burg got it pretty hard. Any reports from western Mont co.?
Thanks Kevin. As to the power crews (GO TEAM!) . . .yesterday as we traveled south on 81, we saw a large convoy of electrical contracting trucks heading north. Looked like the cavalry coming to the rescue.
That storm woke up my wife at 12:30 am and she woke me up. The lightning was so intense I could see everything in the backyard for a brief second. I have not seen that kind of lightning in a long time.
I asked the question if there was a trend for this summer, and looked like it was answered with this blog post.
I told my wife when winter was concluding that I have the feeling we were in for a long, hot, and miserable summer after the weirdest and mildest winter ever. I just hate it when I’m right.
On a good note, depending on how folks look at it, my family and I are traveling to North Carolina to visit relatives. I pray and hope nothing damaging happens to my house while we are gone.
One final thought- I could not help but be in awe of the power and ferocity of the storms we experienced this past weekend.
What a weekend. Hot, dry, windy, stormy and finally rain. Got the hay rolled Saturday and watered everything around the house last night a few hours before the 1.15″ of rain fell. I know some ran off but it rained long enough to wet the ground. It was the first real rain we received in 3 weeks. Coming to work this am there was some limbs and big hunks of trees down but no widespread damage in Washington Co. Some power out but nothing like up 81. I truly feel for those without power and ac and for those working to restore the service.
It is gorgeous here in Blacksburg. No idea of the actual temperature, but it was pleasant enough to sit on the picnic table and catch some rays for a good dose of vitamin D.
In between storms this weekend, we had a “plague” or sorts…..literally thousands of bugs, swarming near the ground, in our neighborhood. They looked like June Bugs, but with a green tint, and not as big. I wonder if their activity was triggered by the weather??
BA in Wytheville
That was some storm we had yesterday in Hillsville around noon. In a matter of minutes, the temp dropped from around 90 to 62!
Good news on the horizon for next and maybe beyond…
Quick look at both the GFS & Euro weeklies & 12Z op runs, it looks as though a cold front will make its way down from Canada to the Great Lakes and maybe even stall either along the Ohio River Valley or make it far enough south to stall along the VA/NC border/TN Valley. This will increase the chances for more beneficial rains & much less severe T-Storms along with a shot of a cooler weather pattern after that. The huge high pressure responsible for the heat wave will shift west to plains.
Stormageddon in Pulaski last night. Been here 32 yrs. and have never seen wind blow as hard as it did around midnight. Funny thing is, it barely rained! Got a half inch AFTER the trees were done falling.
Was able to get the automated rain gauge to register and it said we had “0.47″ inches of rain. I am sure a lot was blown away and never made it into the gauge. Had about 2.5 inches of total rain for the month of June.
The storm last night was incredibly intense…the lightning show was spectacular…once we lost power, we just turned the couch to the picture window and watched it…raw awesome power. Thankfully, and amazingly, our power was restored just a short bit ago.
The crews working for AEP, Pike Electric, Asplundh, and everyone else deserve a lot of gratitude and some slack…they’re working a clean-up about as bad as any hurricane I’ve personally experienced in terms of the power outages and widespread area of damage.
The storm last night was actually a far worse thunderstorm than the derecho Friday, which for us was just a 30-45 minute windstorm that ended with a few drops of rain…but not mich lightning or thunder through it. The wind last night was intense, but short-lived. The lightning went on for over 2 hours, with light rain after the initial band worked through, giving us a pretty nice 0.62″ of rain, after having just 0.63″ from June 13 through July 1.
Oh well so much for the cool down! Accuweather has reversed course and has us in the 90s all the way to the 3rd weekend in July now. Dont understand how you can be that much off on forecasting. Kevin, what is your take on when the cool down might occur?
Looks like the National Weather Service changed the graphics and layout of their homepage. I can’t decide if I like it or not…
There you go again, Jared, taking the Accuweather 3-week forecast literally.
Heat domes don’t move or shrink quickly, so it’s not going to cool down very rapidly. But the heat dome is shifting west with time. Next week will be cooler than this one.
See Quagmire’s 12:49 pm. comment.
I have heard from more than one person in the NRV than last night’s mini-derecho (it may have technically qualified as a derecho) had stronger winds than the original derecho on Friday night.
I wasn’t at home for the first one, but my wife says neither were particularly impressive out our front door in south Roanoke County. We had 40-45 gusts last night, and she said Friday night was similar in how it bent the trees.
From the roof downtown Friday night, the first derecho was the real deal, and I could tell it was worse a few miles north judging by the number of power flashes I saw. I’ve maybe been in only 2 or 3 stronger winds during Plains storm chases.
Weather building a bit in Central Tenn and
Ky…upper air moving and rotating toward SWVA.
Will watch to see if it holds together. Right now
doesnt look like its as organized as last nights event..
But its hours until midnight!
Heres a snippet of a heat burst here in Texas in 1960..
1960 in rural Texas was not so different from the dust bowl days.
Temps rose to at least 140 degrees.
http://nbc5weather.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/the-hottest-temperature-ever/
Well, our outside remote thermometer is not working (we need to replace the remote unit) but I do not believe for a moment that it was nearly as hot today here as it was yesterday. We managed without the AC until just about an hour ago and it was the humidity more than the heat that got me. It is “tolerable” in the shade but hot in the sun. If temps keep sliding down like this for the next week hopefully next week will be very tolerable!
Last night’s storm was quite the light show. We got a bit of rain out of it as well and it was beautiful this morning. No more downed trees…yay!! We still don’t have power, still not hoping for power until who knows when. *sigh*
94 for a high at Roanoke. 5 days ago we hadn’t been above 92 yet. Now, that feels like a cool snap. It was a full 10 degrees cooler than Friday.
86 at Blacksburg today. First sub 90-degree day since, well, just Wednesday. Seems like a long time ago.
I ran out of time before work this morning to make a quick comment here. Nancy awakened very briefly when my alarm went off at 5:30, and told me that we had received quite a lightning storm about 12:45 A.M. that lasted for about 30 minutes. Blondie turned into a quivering mass of Jello and crawled underneath our bed and stayed there until Nancy dragged him out about 5 AM. Luckily LBM (Little Blonde Man) let me sleep right through it. So I had my hopes up about how much rain we had received. Would it be 1/2 inch? Maybe even 3/4? NO WAY!!! I knew once I took a look at the driveway with the dog on leash that we had not gotten much. Measly 2/10ths!! Boo. You can’t always GWYW ….
But then I realize that they announced on local news about 5:45 PM that more than half of Roanoke County AEP customers are STILL without electricity!! And I thanked my lucky stars. I bet wd is one of the unlucky ones, and that is why we haven’t heard from him. Having lived in this region so long and being a keen observer of weather, he would have interesting reactions to the big derecho.
82.7 degree in Christiansburg. Absolutely calm here and it’s gorgeous.
@Doug Griggs, apologizes for the late, late answer regarding Hurricane Bob. At the time, we lived in a one-stop light town called Hope Valley, Rhode Island, and roughly about 30 or so miles from the beach. I am kind of used to seeing ferocious storm. I just can’t help but just be in awe of the power of the storms.
Thanks for the reply, Trevor. It is not at all important about the timing of your response. After my dad retired from New England Telephone at year-end 1972, they moved from Melrose, MA (northern suburb of Boston) to Little Compton, RI, which is Little Rhody’s southeasternmost town. I spent the summers of 1973 and 1975 there. No hurricanes there then, but a couple of brutally hot days in early August 1973 (at least I think it was ’73). Little Compton was nearly always about 10 degrees cooler in summer than Fall River (MA), just 10 miles N of there. But not on those two days. Negative sea breeze. Reached about 103 there. Dad got to know a handful of locals who had lived there for many decades, and they had never witnessed anything like it, not even close. Gorgeous little town, at least back then. “Quaint” in italics.
Just got back from an “enjoyable” few days in Missouri with about (105 F) each day. I was at the aged parents, in-laws and out-laws…….one home has no internet, TV was out, and no newspapers, so I had no clue what was happening out here. My neighbor called me on Sunday evening and said a tornado and other storms had trashed my neighborhood and much of Wytheville real bad, power was out etc. I promptly bought a generator in St. Louis and headed east at 3:30am CST. My part of west Wytheville has SO many trees down. Doug: The nearby golf course has 100+ trees down or nearly destroyed. Most of my neighbors have whole trees down. I ran the generator for 3.5 hours to begin saving my chest freezer food and the frig. May have to toss the mayo and some other things. The power just came back on and Praise The Lord for the AEP and other crews that made it happen.
I thought the blog readers would be interested to hear that here in Prices Fork (western Montgomery County) my rain gauge measured 1.92″ from last night’s truly spectacularly intense storm. My trees and yard definitely sustained more damage than in Friday night’s storm.
I’m not sure exactly when the rain came…..four different times according to the neighbors. I had 2.00 rain in the Wytheville guage from my Friday-Monday trip to Missouri.
Congrats to you Rick and John in P.F., but also condolences. Rick, I think I may have taken over Dryville from Michael Hoback and you. I have not had a total of an inch in the last 3 weeks, I think. But our subdivision looks normal as far as the trees are concerned. We got spared big time as far as wind damage is concerned. Weird twisting of Mick Jagger’s lyrics comes to mind for us: “You may not get what you want (i.e, rain), but you didn’t get what you absolutely didn’t need (downed trees and no power).” I’ll definitely take it. We will get doused sooner or later ….. probably later.
Just about the same where I live, Doug. 1/10 of an inch total in my gauge from last night, after zippo from the big windstorm, which wasn’t all that big on my hillside. I’ll take it though. The A/C is more valuable than rain for me right now.