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Weather Journal

with Kevin Myatt

Drought moves into Roanoke Valley

Posted Jul30, 2007 at 02:31 PM

If you look closely at the map linked here from the National Drought Mitigation Center, the beige color signifying moderate drought has spread eastward into the western half of Roanoke County and into Salem, while the city of Roanoke and eastern Roanoke County are still in the lesser yellow "abnormally dry" category. That's probably picking hairs a bit too much, but suffice it to say that seriously dry conditions have nudged eastward a tad despite the scattered showers and thunderstorms of the past week. It's just not raining enough in a wide enough area to reverse the drought.

610temp0730small.gif

Though it was delayed last week by the werird cutoff low that brought unseasonably cool air to our region, it does appear that hot, dry high pressure is likely to build in later this week, increasing the likelihood that we will experience a prolonged period of hot and dry weather (Climate Prediction Center maps are linked) over the next couple of weeks. This will not be good news for our dry situation. We will continue to have scattered showers and thunderstorms, especially in the afternoons, but these may dwindle some after the next couple of days as a weak cool front moves in, then high pressure builds in, and we are left with only the typical mountain-induced thundershowers of mid-summer as hot, dry air builds in.

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Mug of Kevin Myatt

Kevin Myatt works on the copy desk for The Roanoke Times and is its principal weather geek, writing a weekly weather column and advising the newsroom on weather topics. He helps guide students on a storm chasing trip to the central U.S. each May and was an editor for "Hurricanes and the Middle Atlantic States."

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