Tons of people will head to the beach today.  Good luck finding a spot to put your beach umbrella.  Highs will be in the mid-upper 80s.  There’s a low threat for rip currents, but remember… It’s low threat, not no threat.  When you have tens of thousands of people at the beach, then the odds are good that someone will be affected by them.  So be careful, don’t panic, and swim parallel to the shore if you get caught in one.  The weather will be great with more dry weather expected.  Look at these dewpoints:

They are still unseasonably low which makes the holiday feel even better.  No dog days here. 

  The fireworks look ok tonight.  However, our computer model is still advertising isolated thundestorms north of the metro at 9:00pm.  I’m crossing my fingers that they stay outside the viewing area, but there is a shot especially from around Gloucester county up to Tappahannock for this evening. 

Tomorrow an area of low pressure along with a warm front move close to the region.  We’ll probably stay on the cool side of the front, but the features will still create showers and thunderstorms for tomorrow.  With all the dryness we’ve had recently,  I wonder if it will knock down the coverage.  For now the computer models are showing about 60-70% coverage.  We’ll update tomorrow.  We are still down 1.47″ of rainfall for the year.  Even with the wet June that we saw.  Interesting.

Anyway, have a happy and safe holiday everyone!

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

A small but powerful storm moved over the Peninsula last night.  It knocked down trees and power lines from Isle of Wight to Hampton. 

This was sent in by Liz Paiva near Buckroe Beach.  We had numerous reports of poles down on Aberdeen Road.  It takes a lot of wind to knock over a telephone pole.  I wonder if a tree fell on a line and pulled them over.  I don’t know if some type of resonance worked on the lines somehow either.  (It’s an engineer thing). 

Here’s a tree that fell on a fence in Newport News.  It was sent in by Bill Vose.  Luckily no one was hurt.  There were numerous reports of trees down around Smithfield and Carrolton.  There have been no reports of tornadoes so far.  There may have been some mid level rotation in the storm, but it looks like this was a straight lined wind event.  A storm spotter recorded a wind gust to 64mph in Hampton. I bet the winds got higher in some locations based on the damage, but it probably wasn’t recorded.  Again, this storm was small.  When Don did the cut-in last night he zoomed out to show the entire viewing area, and you couldn’t see the storm anymore.  But when you stretch it out along it’s path, then it did cover a long stretch. 

And last, but not least we did get some more lightning.  This is another great lightning photo from a friend of Don McDaniel. 

I don’t know what carrier that was or if it took a hit, but it is a great shot. 

Over the next couple of days we should see nice weather overall.  We could see a few storms during any of the evenings.  Uh oh.. Our latest computer model brings a few storms near the metro on Saturday night (4th of July).  The NAM keeps them up near Richmond and the GFS doesn’t have anything.  So we’ll see what the next update or two come in with.  Remember fireworks didn’t happen in some cities last year due to storms and wind in the area.  My son was very dissapointed.  So I’ll be watching it like a hawk.  Or maybe an Owl with big eyes. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

I’ve been really busy in the weather center today.  So I haven’t had a chance to post anything about last night’s storms.  We have some great photos which I will post in the next couple of hours.  (Currently 2:47pm).  A small but powerful storm moved from Isle of Wight County into southern Newport News and Hampton.  It knocked down some trees and power lines in the area.  Not to mention it ultimately created the traffic mess in the tunnels this morning as the pumps shut down.  I’ll post more soon. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

For those of you that don’t know…WX stands for weather.  Ok well it’s not that spooky, but it is odd.  The cool/cold air is still residing in Central and Eastern Canada.  Therefore the jetstream is very active for this time of year.  Check out this link that shows the jetstream forecast:  Jetstream  Look at the huge dips on the East and West Coasts 7 days out.  (depending on when you read this).  So you have all the heat and humidity of Summer along with strong upper level support.  We’ll be seeing a stormy pattern across the northern half of the U.S.  for a while.  The typical heat is residing in the south.  So there probably won’t be too many changes there. 

This weather pattern will probably help with the tropics this year.  The jetsream is pretty active and should create a fair amount of wind shear (generally) for a little while longer.  Also, there are some cool spots in the Atlantic Ocean, but the Gulf is pretty warm.  Here is a link to the sea surface temperature anomalies around the world.  Basically that’s the current sea surface temperature compared to average.  SST  Thirdly, the cold air should be able to make a quick return in the Fall.  Of course that will also depend on the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).  That is a semi-permanent pressure pattern in the Atlantic Ocean.  Here is a link to the forecast.  It’s from April, but it has some interesting info.  NAO

Locally, we could see some strong storms tonight as a broken line comes in from western Virginia.  However, the weekend is looking pretty good.  Friday and Saturday look dry, but we may see some storms on Sunday. 

Toodles

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

I love that song by Louis Armstrong.  Anytime it plays I think of images like this:

This was another great photo by Jim Brickett of Saturday’s sunrise on the Chesapeake Bay.  Thanks Jim for sending.  Weak high pressure will give us fair skies today.  We had some unusually dry air move into the region.  That allowed temps to fall to the lower 60 in some inland locations this morning.  We’ve had these abnormally dry Summer air masses move into our region occasionally over the past couple of years.  It is nice, but you have to change how you forecast when they arrive.  We’ve been in a late Spring weather pattern lately and you have to adjust the context of your local forecast when that happens.  Hmm that sounds too nerdy, but it’s true.  For instance normally in late June we would expect a pop up shower or storm almost every day in the 7 day.  But with the dryness I doubt we’ll see hardly any this week.  It won’t stay dry forever though.  The humidity will be back.  Till then enjoy the good hair days. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

A cold front moved through the area overnight.  It brought us some scattered showers and a few thunderstorms.  Today we’ll cool down and dry out…a little.  Winds will be NNW at about 5-10mph.  This will slowly trickle in the drier air and cooler weather.  Yesterday we were in the 90s.  Today we’ll mostly see 80s.  Fair skies are expected today with a few showers and storms possible over Northeast North Carolina.  Should be good weather for the Indy race in Richmond tonight.  Temps will be in the 80s with fair skies. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

As Promised the showers and storms are lining up north of Richmond, and they are headed our way.  The front is moving a little slower. So that’s why we haven’t see too many storms today.  We did have some severe thunderstorm warnings over North Carolina earlier this evening.  It’s interesting that there is a cool pool of air over Northeast North Carolina.  It is a large pool.  It almost looked like a cold front came up from the south.  But I talked to one of the National Weather Service Mets, and they thought it was a one-two punch outflow boundary.  I think he’s right.  That may stabilize things a little in the metro.  But it may also aid in firing up more storms later tonight right along the that boundary. 

  Tomorrow the front moves through early and we should see a nice day.  Partly cloudy skies and highs in the 80s. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

Well the temperatures haven’t been too bad lately.  A little hot inland, but we’ve been seasonalable in most of the metro area.  Our average high is 85 degrees.  We hit 83 today at the airport.  Highs will be in the upper 80s to lower 90s tomorrow.  We’ll be well into the 90s on Friday.   Minor tidal flooding should be over tomorrow as the winds begin to turn more southerly.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

Rainbows.  Sun.  Clouds.  Rain showers.  Thunder.  Lightning.  Hail.  Even some wind.  Whew! 

A pesky area of low pressure has been spinning off the New England coast over the past couple of days.  Every now and then impulses rotate counter-clockwise around that low pressure system.  One of those impulses moved over Hampton Roads this evening just before the sun set.  At the same time, a cold pool of air was overhead… you combine cold air aloft with energy and the heating of the day…and boom: showers all of a sudden become thunderstorms.  Some storms briefly became severe.  Hail was reported in parts of North Carolina. 

There will still be a few showers and thunderstorms around tonight, but with the loss of daytime heating (sun setting), the overall trend will be for showers and storms to weaken tonight.  As a result of the rain that fell today, there will be areas of patchy fog  tonight into Tuesday morning.

Thank you to all the WAVY-TV and Fox 43 viewers for sending their photos to photos@wavy.com.  By the way, if you could resize your pictures to be less than 1 MB before you send them that would be great!    Thank you! 

Here are just a few pictures that we received today. 

From Mario in Hampton

From Elizabeth in Elizabeth City

From Michael in York County

Meteorologist Cheryl Nelson

Yesterday we heated up to 93 degrees at the airport.  Not a record, but hot.   Today will be a little cooler due to the Northwest winds.  Here’s a view of the recent weather pattern:

We tapped into the heat yesterday, but today we cool down a little and dry out a little.  The heat will still live in on in the West and the Deep South though.  The dip in the jetstream will rev up an area of low pressure offshore. 

This will be a Nor’easter type setup.  Yes I said it…Nor’easter.  Something that you usually don’t say on the first day of Summer.  Today we’ll see Northwest winds, but they’ll gradually shift Northeast over the next 24 hours.  This will keep ushering in cooler weather.  (hmm I used to be an usher at the movie theatre).  Anyway, it will create breezy conditions and minor tidal flooding.  There is a coastal flood watch up on the Eastern Shore for this effect.  The astronomical tides are a little higher on top of the Nor’easter type setup.  Tides at Wachapreague are expected to be from 6-7ft.  Minor tidal flooding starts at 6.5ft at that location.  This is not a classic Nor’easter.  We won’t see any storms over our area or even in most Northeast cities.  A few coastal showers are possible.  But this does resemble a Nor’easter pattern.  Highs on Monday and Tuesday will be in the upper 70s to lower 80s.  Average high is 84 degrees. More wacky weather. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler