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Weather Journal

with Kevin Myatt

Severe storms hit New River, Roanoke valleys

Posted Jul23, 2008 at 03:40 PM

shelfb0723small.jpg

A menacing shelf cloud advances over Roanoke at the leading edge of strong storms about 4:30 p.m. Click here for a bigger look.

It happened, again. A band of strong to severe thunderstorms worked through the New River Valley with numerous reports of large hail, and then blew through the Roanoke Valley between 4:20 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., with some gusty winds, heavy rain, frequent cloud-to-ground lightning and perhaps some scattered small hail. As the storm system advances eastward, expect heavy downpours, gusty winds and some robust lightning most everywhere these storms pass over, with some locally very damaging winds (60 mph-plus) and hail possible.

I took a series of photos from the Roanoke Times roof garden as the storm arrived. Where I was, the winds peaked at no higher than 45 mph, and I observed no hail, but the shelf cloud soaring over the city was an awesome sight. One of my photos is inset above, and several more are linked below:
* Shelf cloud approaching
* Outflow boundary over downtown
* Lowering to the southwest
* Flags extended by wind on Higher Education Center

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M.L. St. Clair shot photos of the storm's outflow rolling over the Roanoke Valley

M.L. St. Clair of Salem submitted a pair of photos showing angry storm clouds, looking toward Roanoke. * Salem storm photo 1 * Salem storm photo 2

If you have photos from this afternoon's or evening's storms that you don't mind me using on the blog, please email them to me. If you have any notable observations on the stormy weather, either email me or comment below.

Just like last night, a severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for Western Virginia until 11 p.m.

Latest warnings and watches via National Weather Service-Blacksburg Web site

Latest National Weather Service radar

Storm reports from the National Weather Service:
* 3:15 p.m. -- 8-inch-diameter tree limb blown off tree, Radford
* 3:39 p.m. -- 1-inch hail, falling for 5 minutes, Fairlawn, Pulaski County
* 3:40 p.m. -- .88-inch hail, Radford, trained spotter report
* 3:40 p.m. -- 1.25-inch hail, covering the ground, lasted 10 minutes, Fairlawn, Pulaski County
* 3:50 p.m. -- .88 inch hail, Radford, public report
* 3:55 p.m. -- 1-inch hail, Christiansburg
* 3:55 p.m. -- Large tree blown down, Christiansburg
* 3:55 p.m. -- 1-inch hail, lasted 5 minutes, 2 miles west of Christiansburg
* 4:45 p.m. -- Large tree blown down at Windy Gap, 4 miles southeast of Roanoke
* 4:54 p.m. -- Large tree blown down, 3 miles southeast of Roanoke
* 5:45 p.m. -- .75-inch hail, 2 miles northeast of Snow Creek, Franklin County

Comments

# 1

[July 23, 2008 6:29 PM]

Brandon R.

Quite a perch you have up there on the roof, Kev.

Just do us all a favor and don't get hurt.

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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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