Friday, September 17, 2004
Weather columnist Kevin Myatt: Off the hook?
Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.
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- Many looking past mild, quiet week toward possibly wild weekend
- Sprinkles or flurries possible Tuesday, but maybe something bigger for the weekend?
- For now, it looks like a quiet, mostly mild week ahead for SW Virginia
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The answer: Not entirely.
Here are a couple of things to watch today.
As of 8 a.m., we are under a a series of bands of showers ahead of the old circulation center of Ivan, located near the spot where Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia meet. These could be heavily in spots, particularly as daytime heating becomes a factor (the sun warms things up whether you can see it on the ground or not). There is some concern for severe thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes, in addition to locally heavy downpours.
Secondly, the rain rotating behind the storm into the “deformation zone” has been quite impressive for a tropical feature. This area of solid precipitation appears to be moving east out of Tennessee toward us, and could spell considerable rain into the evening.
Perhaps we will be spared the epic heavy downpours that can send rivers out of their banks, but it’s too early to say that for sure. The moisture is certainly there, tightly packed into every square inch of the tropical air that has moved in. With just the right trigger, it can come roaring down, as Tropical Storm Gaston showed us in Richmond a few weeks ago. But for now, it looks pretty good, and I’m sure there’s not many people disappointed about that.
Breezy showers turning into a steady rain for a while is the best call. Look for 1-3 inches of rain to be common with some higher amounts. Keep an eye on things in case they change, though, and I will, too.
