Thursday was quiet, but Friday is expecting to see some more storms in the forecast.  The models are advertising late day (maybe evening thunderstorms).  We are under a slight risk for severe weather again.  Remember that means that the area has a higher risk for severe weather than a typical day with thunderstorms.  The models do show the strongest upper level energy further North towards Pennsylvania and New York.  However we will still see strong southwest winds on Friday outside of any storms.   Winds may gust up to 30mph at the surface.  Sometimes when there are strong winds at all levels from one direction it makes it tough for storms to grow in height.  We’ll see if the instability will overcome this feature.  A cold front will approach Friday evening.  That will probably be the trigger for storms, and it may be why the models aim for that time of day. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

Stormy weather, terrible traffic.

They seem to go hand in hand, don’t they?

During the commercial break, Don Roberts shared a tale I’m sure many of you can relate to.  Trying to make his way to his home on the Peninsula, he did his best to avoid the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.  Of course, he was trying to get home during the height of the storm.  He thought snaking his way through Downtown Norfolk to get to his final destination was the best bet.  It took him two hours to get home!  He had lots of company on the road, and likely, lots of other frustrated drivers.

The storm passed fairly quickly yesterday, but I’m sure the congestion left behind lasted for hours!

Do you have any highway headaches to share?

Last month, NASA launched a new weather satellite.

And just yesterday, the GOES-14 satellite successfully beamed back its first image from 22,300 miles up.

I’m not sure how many storms this Summer has seen, but it’s been a lot.  It feels like 500 thousand sometimes.  Now we did need the rain, and we got it.  I think everyone in the area saw at least some showers.  We also had some storm damage though.  By the way SPC in the previous blog means Storm Prediction Center.  I’ve mentioned it so much I thought everyone was familiar with it.  They had us under a slight risk for severe weather today.  Anyway, look at this:

This was from a viewer in downtown Portsmouth.  Lots of heavy rain fell across the area.  We had several photos/reports of street flooding.  Some residents saw a half inch up to an inch.  We also had some wind damage.  We had reports of a few trees down around Great Bridge in Chesapeake.  We had a few reports from parts of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Newport News.  Here’s a damage photo from Herb in Virginia Beach:

Here is a different photo of a grill that was tossed into a pool.  It was sent in by Sue in Virginia Beach:

Not sure how strong the wind was there, but it may have caught the grill just right.  Or just wrong I guess.  No grilling tonight. 

We had a tornado warning in Chesapeake earlier this evening, but I have had no reports of damage from that storm. 

  Finally, this is out of the viewing area, but interesting nonetheless.  In Ocean City Maryland hail fell for about 5 minutes and covered the road.  Some of the hail was one inch in diamter.   There was some damage reported to vehicles.  Crazy day!  But as the title suggests.  We’ve had a loooot of storms this year.  Just not widespread rain every time.  Our station picked up 1.01″ this afternoon by the way.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

Could be an interesting day with some strong/severe thunderstorms expected this afternoon.  SPC has us under a slight risk for severe weather.  We have a lot of moisture in place at the surface.  Dewpoints are in the mid 70s in some areas.  Temps are in the mid-upper 80s right now.  There are a few heavy showers just south of the viewing area which are just starting to grow.  They are moving up from the south.  According to the RUC model, CAPE’s are up to 3500.  Lifted indices are -5 to -7.  It’s pretty unstable.  We’ll have to see what the cloud deck coming in from central Virginia does.  This is a quick blog.  I’ll try to update later today. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

As July nears a close the tropics are still quiet.  We have yet to have a named storm this hurricane season.  However, this isn’t that unusual.  Here is a graphic showing the typical peak of hurricane season.

Activity typically picks up in the tropics during the month of August with a peak in mid-September.  By September ocean waters in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean are at their warmest. 

This year could be interesting though.  With the development of El Nino, it may be difficult for tropical systems to form and maintain themselves.  During an El Nino, upper-level winds in the tropical Atlantic tend to be stronger which can “blow the tops of thunderstorms,” hence reducing chances for further development.

We’ll keep an eye on the tropics, but for now, all is quiet.

Meteorologist Cheryl Nelson

After thunderstorms pounded the Eastern Shore, Middle Peninsula and Peninsula last night, we got more storms today!  This time parts of the Southside and Northeast North Carolina got in on some of the action.  Unfortunately there were more damage reports today.  I’m sad to report that one person was struck and killed by lightning in Southern Shores, North Carolina.  Please remember if you hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning.  If you hear thunder, get indoors immediately if possible.  Flash flooding was also reported in many areas to include the Outer Banks and Wallops Island/Chincoteague. 

Here are some pictures that we received from viewers today.

Flooding in Duck, NC from Gary

By looking at the photo I can’t tell how deep the water was on the road, but for safety reasons, please remember not to drive through water of unknown depth.

Flooding in Chincoteague from Kirra

Over 4 inches of rain was reported in the Chincoteague/Wallops Island area just from today!

Trees down in Wallops Island

From Andrea in Williamsburg

The wind gusted in excess of 60 mph in severe thunderstorms which was strong enough to take down a few trees.  Trees were also reported down in Windsor, (Isle of Wight County)VA and Hobbsville (Perquimans County, NC).

Please stay safe.  If you know of damage that I didn’t mention, please let us know by posting a response to this blog.  On many occasions, we do not know the extent of storm damage until we hear from you.  Thank you!

Meteorologist Cheryl Nelson

Showers and thunderstorms fired late this afternoon across northern and western parts of our Virginia viewing area.  Trees were reported down across the metro Richmond area, parts of the Middle Peninsula (near Gloucester Point) and Pungoteague on the Eastern Shore. 

From Lena north of Gloucester Point

Hail was also reported in Gloucester.  Our weather watcher, Ed in Williamsburg received close to 2.00″ of rain on Sunday.  Unfortunately many other residents across the Southside didn’t even see a drop of rain today.  (They only heard crickets…).  The Southside and NE North Carolina need rain!

PS.  If you saw damage or know of damage that I didn’t mention, please leave a reply and let us know.   We appreciate it.  Thanks! 

Have a wonderful Sunday night/Monday!

Meteorologist Cheryl Nelson

Here’s another great photo from Jim Brickett of a sunrise over Lynnhaven Inlet.  No big weather expected today.  We’ll see isolated showers and storms this afternoon.  (20% coverage) with a few more scattered showers and storms over Northeast North Carolina.  (30% coverage).  We had one heavy downpour this morning between Hatteras and Rodanthe.   It will be hot today compared to recent high temperatures.  Lower 90s in most areas.  Upper 80s near the shore.  Tomorrow we’ll see highs in the low-mid 90s.  A few computer models are going for upper 90s inland, but I’m not buying into it just yet.  The models have been overshooting  temperatures a little lately.  We’ll also see a better chance for scattered pm storms on Sunday.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

The Basics:  Yesterday we had some severe weather warnings, but they were well north and south of the metro.  This morning we had some showers and storms, but the bulk of it was south of the metro.  (See a theme here?)  The wording for our weekend forecast has been changing over the past 24 hours.  The previous forecasts were looking pretty dry.  Now, we have a chance for some thunderstorms in the afternoons/evenings for Saturday and Sunday.  If I were on stage right now, then you would probably throw some tomatoes.  I will say however…they are low chances(About 20-30%).  Overall, I think it will be good.  Temperatures will come up again into the 90s.  Sunday is looking like the hottest day (Low-Mid 90s).

The More Technical:  Having said the above…It’s tough calling for more rain chances. Because when we look back, the call for 20-30% chances have had little payoff this week.   A lot of people have been saying “It’s Summer.  You’re supposed to have pop up showers and storms”.  While that is true, we have had a lot of fronts which have moved in and either died out or lingered.  That’s something that we usually see in May or early June, and it has really created the chances for rain.  The position of  fronts dictates where storms will occur.  Compared to mid-latitude lows, fronts are small systems which are difficult for models to predict.  Our in-house model is a higher resolution as is the Hi-Res WRF (Weather Research Forecast Model).  They do a pretty good job, but they are based off of broader models.  So if the broader models are off, then the more refined models will be off too.  So we’ve been trying to pinpoint the forecast as best we can.  Rather than just say possible pop-up showers and storms each day.  Whatever happens I’ll be watering my lawn.  Maybe that will egg on the rain. 

On a side note the tropics are still quiet.  Vacationers to the Caribbean have had little worries lately.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler