Yesterday, we had some wind damage reported up around Smithfield.  There were some strong storms that came in from the west and produced some powerful wind gusts.  The National Weather Service will go out and survey the damage today to determine if it the damage was caused by a mircoburst or a tornado.

Severe Weather Reports

There was also a report of some wind damage in the Huntersville section of Norfolk.  Most likely from straight lined winds.  You are probably familiar with what a tornado is, but you may not know a microburst.  That is a storm that produces a sudden forced decent of the wind.  Once the winds hit the ground they spread out from that point.  The damage pattern is usually pretty straightforward with tornadoes causing a twisting motion and microbursts producing more of a spread pattern.

Microburst VS Tornado Damage (NOAA)

Both types of wind can cause major damage.

Once again many people missed out on the storms.  I was under one of the downpours, and it’s hard for me to imagine that some folks in the area didn’t see any rain.  My weather watchers: Greg in Currituck, Jan in Reedville, Don in Toano, Donna in southern Virginia Beach, and Pam in Gloucester all missed the rain except for a few drops.  Meanwhile Henry in Denbigh had 0.45″, Mike in Whaleyville had 0.4″, and Scott in Yorktown had 0.08″.  Norfolk International had 0.61″ yesterday.  Here was the radar estimates from Super Doppler 10:

Estimated Rain Totals

We had some strong upper level winds and a cold front yesterday.  So that’s what caused many of the storms along with the heat and humidity.  Today though the front is to our south.  We will get to enjoy some really nice weather behind it.  Skies will be mostly sunny, highs will be in the mid-upper 80s, and the humidity will drop quite a bit this afternoon with a light northeast wind.

Today’s Forecast Map

High pressure will remain in control today and tomorrow.  However, the cold front in the Midwest will push in by Saturday.  For now the models have the front stalling out over the region.  This will give us a chance for on-and-off showers and storms from Friday night through Monday.   There may be some strong storms on Saturday ahead of the front.  As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog some folks in the northern parts of the viewing area still really need rain.  I don’t think anyone in northeast North Carolina needs it at this point. We will dry out by late Monday.  At least we’ll have cooler temperatures from Saturday into the middle of next week.

There is a new tropical storm in the Atlantic.  Gordon is a very weak tropical storm with winds of 40mph.  It is on a north-northeast motion at about 14mph.  It was located far from us though.  This morning it was over 580 miles east of Bermuda.  So it will not threaten the United States.

Tropical Storm Gordon

The storm is forecast to become a hurricane for a brief period over the weekend.  It’s possible in the long run that we could get some waves from Gordon, but they should be minimal as the storm is moving away from us.  By next week Gordon will probably be a post-tropical system as it heads for the Azores.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler