If you have noticed its become more humid today as a warm front continues its push to our north. The Storm Prediction Center has Hampton Roads in a Slight Risk of severe weather for this afternoon and especially tonight. The biggest risk will be for hail and gusty winds. With the thunderstorms the temperatures are going to stay very mild tonight with lows in the upper 50s.

Thunderstorms Tonight

This low pressure system is all associated with a larger storm affecting the entire eastern half of the country.

National SAT/RAD

See the curvature of the clouds and snow in Minnesota? See how the line of snow/rain is going all the way down through Atlanta. That band of moisture is the source for the rain and storms we could see tonight. Some of the computer models are hinting at showers this evening and some are saying overnight. There is a bit of disagreement between these models, but there is still a good chance for activity for the rest of this day and tonight as well as the severe storms in Kentucky weaken and then move in to our area.

Tomorrow the temperatures are looking even warmer across the area, highs will spike to be in the upper 70s across the Southside, but remain near 70 for the Peninsula and north. We should have partly cloudy skies on our Thursday, by Friday temperatures will settle back down to the 60s.

Meteorologist Jeff Edmondson

We knew the issue of tolls at the Downtown and Midtown Tunnels would be a hot topic.

Since our series of special reports on the tolls aired early this week, we’ve been inundated with email, Facebook comments and tweets on Twitter. Plenty of people are concerned, upset, and/or apprehensive about the tolls that are expected to stick around for the next five decades.

I learned the very earliest those tolls would be in place is August, although we’ve also heard it will be closer to the end of the year. Regardless, we felt it was important to start preparing drivers now for the possibility of added fees to drive through two of our area’s busy tunnels.

With an off-peak toll starting at $1.59, there’s plenty of anxiety about cost. A rush-hour ride Monday through Friday would cost you $1.84. That toll price is expected to rise over time.

What was shocking to me is how much more it will cost if you don’t have an E-Z Pass transponder. The transponder is a small box you can get online, by phone or through a retail center in Gloucester (another one will open up at some point in Portsmouth). You attach it to your windshield or to your license plate. The toll will be taken electronically from your account. No toll booths, no toll attendant, no stopping at the tunnel. The way to pay is through E-Z Pass, because without it, you will be charged a toll recovery fee, which would be two times the toll rate. So, you’d have to pay $4.77 if you didn’t have an E-Z Pass and drove through the Downtown Tunnel in an off-peak time spot. During rush hour, a ride through the tunnel without an E-Z Pass would be $5.02.

People have been emailing me, asking about relatives who come in from out of town, or those who drive through the tunnel five or six times a year. They want to know if they need to get an E-Z Pass. They don’t have to, of course. But riding through the tunnel without one means they’ll get a bill in the mail for that higher price. High speed cameras will capture your license plate and find your address from that. You’ll have thirty days to appeal the fee or pay up. Either way you will pay and you’ll pay more if you don’t have an E-Z Pass.

The transponder itself is $25, but that fee is waived if you tie your account to a bank account. You’ll have to fund the account, so you’ll pay $35 up front per transponder and your toll will be deducted from that amount. Once the balance falls below $10, another $35 will be pulled from your bank account. Is it worth it to get one if you only travel through a toll a few times a year? That’s up to you to decide. This system works in 14 other states, though, so if you travel, if may save you time and some money in other places.

There are still plenty of topics to cover related to the toll story, so we are not done yet. Let us know what other issues concern you. I can be reached at cheryl.tan@wavy.com

We have plenty of information at www.wavy.com.

Here’s a link to get more information and to sign up for an E-Z Pass Acount:

www.ezpassva.com

Dozens of Virginia Beach children took a pledge today, to stay drug-free. Bayside Elementary School invited me to be the guest speaker for its fourth grade D.A.R.E. graduation.

Students take D.A.R.E. pledge

D.A.R.E. stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The program is available for children in kindergarten through 12th grade. It’s a collaborative effort between school and law enforcement personnel.

Over the past few months, the students learned about the dangers of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

Families of the D.A.R.E. grads

Many of the kids had family members there for today’s event. I spoke to the group about peer pressure and shared stories about athletes, entertainers- even a family friend- who fought addiction.

When I posted a picture and a word about my visit on Facebook, a few people posted comments opposing the program.

Deputies Foy & Driscoll leading the D.A.R.E. pledge

Curtis posted, “No one wants kids doing drugs but DARE is a useless project that just spends taxpayer dollars in an attempt to forge support for the unconstitutional prison industrial complex and its pet project the bloody war on drugs and ethnic minorities.”  Maggie added, “Good on the kids for completing the program, but there are some sobering statistics about D.A.R.E.; ”Scientific evaluation studies have consistently shown that DARE is ineffective in reducing the use of alcohol and drugs and is sometimes even counterproductive — worse than doing nothing. That’s the conclusion of the U.S. General Accounting Office, the U.S. Surgeon General, the National Academy of Sciences, and the U.S. Department of Education, among many others’. She cited this link: http://alcoholfacts.org/DARE.html

We know people are human and sometimes have to learn lessons on their own. We can only hope by citing real life examples and explaining that everyone’s body chemistry is different and addiction is hard to shake once you get caught up in it, it will keep kids from ever trying and or abusing drugs.  I shared these quotes from singers Kurt Cobain and Billie Holiday and the sad stories about their deaths which can be attributed to their substance abuse and addiction:

“Drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with with your self esteem.”
– Kurt Cobain, Grunge Musician, who struggled with drug abuse and depression and died at 27.

“Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better. All dope can do for you is kill you – and kill you the long, slow, hard way.”
– Billie Holiday, Singer who struggled with drug and alcohol abuse and died at 44.

NASA has released an absolutely stunning photo of the East Coast at night. It was shot from the ISS on February 6th of this year.

The blog software tends to “scrunch” the picture here a bit. If you want the original link to the NASA site (& original resolution!), click on the picture itself. Here it is:

Just to help you orient yourself to where you are looking in the photo, I’ve added arrows and labels pointing to the major cities included:

And finally, if you want to get a full resolution image-one that you can zoom in on-it can be found on the NASA site.

The theme over the next couple of days will be just that…warm & wet or cool & dry.  Today we are cool and dry.  Highs will be in the mid 50s with a lot of sunshine.  We had some thick fog inland this morning, but it will burn off.   Winds will be out of the northeast at 10-20mph.  Tomorrow the winds will be out of the south/southeast.  This will pull in some warmth, but also some moisture.  So highs will be in the 60s, but there is a good chance for rain.  We could also see a few thunderstorms Wednesday evening.  On Thursday the winds will be westerly.  It looks like there will be some downsloping off of the mountains.  Therefore the forecast is now calling for highs in the low 70s.  There may be a shower early in the day, but then we will clear out.  Friday will be cooler and drier.  Then we’ll warm up again on Saturday to the upper 60s, but there will be another chance for showers.  Sunday will be cool and dry again.  Hopefully, that rain will get delayed a little on Saturday so we can enjoy some of those temperatures. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

The weekend was much cooler and drier than late last week.  We had a strong breeze on Saturday, but it wasn’t anything like Friday’s strong winds.  In fact… a report came out over the weekend about a tornado that touched down in Mathews county Friday evening.  It was an EF-O that caused damage to several buildings in Bavon.  There were also some downed trees with that storm. 

Today our winds will be light, but southerly.  This will help to warm things up, but it will also pull up some moisture from the south.  So we will see some spotty showers later today. 

Today's Forecast Map

 Tomorrow will be another transition day across the area.   The cold front on the above map will pass through before sunrise.  Tomorrow winds will be out of the north at 10-15mph with gusts up to 25mph.  So high temperatures will be stuck in the low 50s.  In fact some cities will barely make it out of the upper 40s.   We will warm up again on Wednesday (mid 60s) with a better chance for rain showers.  The next few days will be mild overall, but there will be a few swings in the temps coming down the pipe.  We’ll probably have to adjust the forecast a bit as those days get closer. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

The moon, Venus & Jupiter in the sky

You may have noticed quite a show in our sky tonight.  The crescent moon, Venus and Jupiter are forming a rather bright triangle.  The moon is shining right beside Venus and Jupiter is lurking a bit above.  The shot to the left is from our Tower Cam 10.  The planets are rather small on this image, but below is a really nice photograph taken by my meteorological friend Brad Panovich, who serves as Chief Meteorologist at WCNC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Charlotte, NC.

If you missed it tonight, try again tomorrow night.  Check just before sunset, for a beautiful blue sky with the shining planets!  More information on this sky show is available from NASA (click here)…

Enjoy!
-Mike

Courtesy of Brad Panovich, Chief Meteorologist, WCNC-TV Charlotte, NC

We are going from record highs to temperatures below average. Today highs will be right at the average mark at 53 degrees, but its going to feel colder than than thanks to a strong westerly wind at 15-20mph today. Gusts could be up to 30mph! We should have plenty of sunshine as dry air continues to move in from the northwest.

Today

That area of high pressure near Kentucky will slowly move in to Hampton Roads tonight which will eventually calm down the winds. The problem is that we will still have clear skies, so our overnight lows will be near 31 degrees.  Isn’t it amazing how we can go from a record high of 82 to 31 degrees in just a day and a half!

Not as windy tomorrow.

That high pressure center will move overhead by tomorrow which should mean winds no more than 5mph. Also clear skies should accompany this system, but temperatures will be cooler. Tomorrow our highs will be only in the upper 40s, but we should rebound a bit Monday and Tuesday, temperatures will bounce back to the upper 50s.

Enjoy your weekend!

Meteorologist Jeff Edmondson

The severe weather chance is still looking good across Hampton Roads. The atmosphere remains unstable in our area with many indices at a good level. The Shear which is looking at the wind here at the ground level and also in the mid levels of the atmosphere remain around 60kts where 30kt is good for severe weather. The Lifted Index is still a bit low where numbers are close to -1. Areas in North Carolina have numbers as low as -7. Usually the lower the number the better (ex -7 is better for storms than -2) Right now, we still have decent levels of humidity outside, but nothing all too impressive. This storm system is looking to move in early evening.

Future Trak @ 5pm

Storms should be firing just ahead of the cold front as temperatures sit in the 70s to low 80s. The biggest threat tonight will be for damaging wind gusts, but there is still a possibility for an isolated tornado.

Future Trak @ 6pm

Notice how most of the storms are ahead of the cold front? Now behind it there may be a light showers  that will taper off tonight.

Rain Accumulation by Tomorrow

This event is not expected to bring a lot of rain to our area, but with the storms we will have times of heavy downpours.

Tomorrow will still be windy with gusts to near 30mph in the morning, but things should begin to calm down in the afternoon. Our weekend should have plenty of sunshine but colder temperatures with highs near 53 degrees on Saturday and 49 on Sunday.

Meteorologist Jeff Edmondson

The forecast has been modified since yesterday, and things have become very interesting.  Where do I begin?  Last night we had a strong warm front move through the region.  Temperatures dropped to the upper 50s, but then they warmed to the mid-upper 60s through the early morning.  Winds picked up out of the southwest, and were already gusting up to 25mph before the sun came up.  Winds through the day will gust up to 40mph. 

Due to the overnight warming, some partial clearing, and the strong southwest winds; the forecast high is now aiming for 81 degrees.  If we get there, then it will beat the current 80 degree record that was set back in 1985 at Norfolk International Airport.  Along with the heat, it will also be humid.  Dewpoints have already risen into the 60s.  This will create a good amount of instability later today.  Especially for late February.  Some of the models are estimating between 1000-1500 J/KGK of CAPE (amount of instability).  That’s not too shabby for the time of year.  Also, the wind shear will be between 60-80 knots.  Usually 40 is the threshold for severe.  So we are area is in a slight risk for severe:

Severe Risk

 The Storm Prediction Center was actually talking about a possible moderate risk in or near our region.  (Update….At 8:00am they upgraded us to a moderate risk.)  So I tried to emphasize the risk for wind and storms this morning on-air.  A large cold front will approach from the west, but it won’t make it here during the daytime hours.  The storms that form will be well out ahead of it.

Today's Forecast Map.

 Our computer model starts the scattered showers and storms up between 1 and 3pm:

Future Trak (3pm)

 The front will actually move through between 8 and 11pm.  The winds will quickly shift to the northwest.  We will pull down some colder air for tonight, but the strong winds will stay up.  So we will not reach our maximum cooling potential.  Gosh that sounds nerdy!  Bottom line…Lows will be in the low 40s and NOT crash into the low 30s. 

On Saturday we’ll have a west/northwest wind.  Sometimes this allows for minor warming due to downsloping off of the Appalachians.  Yes it still affects southeat Virginia.  So highs are forecast to be in the low 50s.  Temperatures will drop further on Saturday night into the upper 20s to low 30s.  Then the wind will be more northeasterly on Sunday.  So highs will be in the upper 40s.  That will be a huge change from today.  We’ll warm up early next week to near 60. 

Be careful out there today.  Those storms could get pretty scary.  Isolated tornadoes are even possible.  There is a slight chance that the storms will move-in early.  That would help to keep the temperature and instability from reaching their maximum. Cloud cover will also, be a key in the forecast.  If we don’t get much clearing, then that would help a bit.  Regardless, winds will be very strong and we are looking at that chance for severe at this time. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler