Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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June is only a week old, but rainfall is already halfway to normal for the whole month.

Roanoke's 1.87 inches through Saturday is a little past the halfway mark to the normal rainfall for June, which is 3.68 inches, while Blacksburg's 1.86 inches is a little below halfway to its June normal of 3.93 inches.

Thanks to a soggy May, Blacksburg is more than 5 inches ahead of normal for the year through Saturday at 24.52 inches, while Roanoke is a little more than an inch above normal at 19.53 inches.

A very familiar pattern is setting up this week. Southerly to southeasterly winds will build Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic moisture into the region through the week, with the daily threat of showers and thunderstorms triggered by daytime heating, terrain factors and weak disturbances moving through.

A cold front from the west will slowly move our way, but may stall. This will keep us in a sticky air mass for much of the week, and the front itself may help trigger more showers and storms late this week.

So the theme will be the same as in recent weeks: Expect periods of locally heavy rainfall and possibly some severe thunderstorms.

Another above-normal rainfall month looks probable for much of Southwest Virginia. We might get there before the month is half over.

Weather Journal appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.