If it's going to hit 100, it'll happen Sunday
Posted Jun07, 2008 at 10:49 PM
Sunday will probably be the peak day of the current heat wave. Besides the hot dome of high pressure that is parked overhead, we'll likely get a weak westerly downslope wind. Downslope winds dry out and heat up due to compression. Some of our hottest days during our sizzling hot August last year were when a westerly wind developed.
Most likely, we'll come up short of 100 in Roanoke, probably in the 96-99 range. If it does hit 100, it would be the second-earliest triple-digit day since Roanoke's weather records began in 1912. The record high for June 8 is 97, set in 1933.
Blacksburg had its earliest 90-degree day in its recorded weather history, dating to 1953, on Friday, and will likely have a third consecutive day of 90-degree weather and could set or tie a record for a fifth consecutive day. Blacksburg's June 8 record was 90, set in 1984, which was the earliest 90-degree day on record before it was upstaged on Friday.
From Monday through Thursday, the dome of high pressure responsible for the heat will slip a little east. That will probably take a few degrees off the temperatures, slowly, but humidity will build as a southerly flow starts returning moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. The comfort level won't improve much with stickier air building in, but there will be more clouds, showers and thunderstorms. Later in the week, around Thursday or so, a cold front will try to push eastward against the hot air. It may not make it all the way through, but will at least stir things up a bit, and increase the coverage of showers and thunderstorms.
We could even have a day or two by late this week when it doesn't make it to 90.
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