It doesn't get much drier than this ... but it will change quicklyPosted Feb24, 2007 at 04:18 PMAt 3 p.m., Roanoke's temperature was 52 degrees and the dew point was -4 ... making the humidity 10 percent. I have a hard time remembering a lower humidity during my 7-plus years in this area. (Click here for Roanoke's current conditions and those of the last 24 hours) That low humidity is one of the major reasons wintry precipitation is even on the menu for Sunday. With tons of moisture being pulled our way, that dry air will become saturated. In that process, it will cool rapidly during the evaporation of the first waves of precipitation. And that evaporational cooling, combined with a slight amount of cold air damming (cold air being pushed southwestward along the east slopes of the Appalachians), will drop temperatures very near where they would need to be for freezing and frozen precipitation by early Sunday. It's really an almost Western-type weather scenario ... it's not uncommon in many areas of the West to have highs in the 50s and then for temperatures to drop rapidly and snow to fall. We will see very little or quite likely no snow, but temperatures will be near freezing. I still have my doubts whether the Roanoke Valley will see much in the way of ice, but things will be worse just to the north. Botetourt, Alleghany, Rockbridge and all counties north and east along I-81 are now under a winter storm warning through midnight Sunday. A freezing rain advisory is in effect for Roanoke, Bedford, Montgomery, Craig, Giles, Pulaski, Floyd and Franklin counties. Click here for the latest from the National Weather Service in Blacksburg. |
About this blog
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." .....Advertisement.....
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