There’s a lot happening out there in Hampton Roads this weekend. This is the time of year for outdoor events all over Hampton Roads.  It can get very busy at times.  Promoters and vendors sit on pins and needles when there is rain in the forecast.  Luckily this year we are not expecting the big and bad thunderstorms like we’ve had in recent years.  Speaking of bad storms…we had one yesterday on the Middle Peninsula.  The winds really picked up and we had gusts of 40mph reported.  There was some tree damage in King and Queen county.

Storm Last Night

My weather watcher Barry in Gloucester had his deck umbrella blow off and go into his yard.  There were also some scattered power outages (briefly).  Today a weak boundary (cool front) is moving in from the north.  Yesterday’s strong breeze was from an outflow boundary coming off of the storms.  This cool front will move in and stall out over our inland and southern sections.  So that is where we will see a few showers popping up today.

Today’s Forecast

I don’t expect any rain near the shore, and only a slim chance for a stray shower in the metro.  So we have good weather if you are headed to the Greek Festival today in Norfolk.  Tonight a batch of showers and storms will form along the front and then move into Hampton Roads.  There may even be a few strong storms in the area.  This will continue into tomorrow morning.  The high resolution models (including Future Trak) are in agreement on rain showers in the morning and lesser chances in the afternoon.

Future Trak Saturday morning

Here’s the view from our model in the afternoon.

Future Trak Saturday afternoon.

The GFS model still has rain in the afternoon, but I’m hoping that the lower resolution is just connecting the dots and overdoing it.  Now I say that, but I actually need some rain in my yard.  I know though that If we miss the Saturday morning rain somehow, then we still have a decent shot at rain Sunday and Monday.  The models have been varying on the coverage for those days, but I think we have at least a 50% shot for both of them.

Rain Chances

These rain chances will impact the Beer festival, the Chesapeake Jubilee, and the Stockley Gardens arts festival in Norfolk. Oh and the Potato Festival in North Carolina as well as the Touch a Truck event on the Peninsula.

As far as temps go…today we will see a little cool down with highs in the upper 70s to low 80s.  Remember yesterday we were in the low 90s.  Winds will be northeast at 10mph.  Tomorrow the cooler weather will settle in a little more.  So highs will be in the mid 70s with easterly winds at 10mph.

Tomorrow’s Forecast

Rain will continue on Monday, but will taper off by Tuesday.  At least we don’t see any huge cool downs over the next 7 days.  We’ll probably be tweaking the rain chances as we go into the weekend.  Meteorologists Don Slater, Jeff Edmondson, and Tiffany Savona will have updates that you will want to catch between tonight and tomorrow.  Either way I hope you have a good weekend.

Meteorologist: Jeremy wheeler

It’s been quite an experience for a Chesapeake mother and daughter who flew to Los Angeles for the big American Idol Finale.

Jessica & Cindy at Idol

You watched it here on Fox 43 TV, but Cynthia and Jessica Chang got to see it live in the Nokia Theater.  And they even got into an after party!  They were tired, but stuck around and got to meet former Idol champ and country singer, Scotty McCreary.

Jessica with former Idol winner Scotty McCreary

Cynthia won the Fox 43/Hot 100.5 “Finale fly away” contest.  They emailed me pictures and notes during their trip.  Jessica got to meet many of the Idol contestants and got lots of autographs.

Jessica with with Idol contestants Paul, Devin, and Curtis

Jessica got all of the autographs

They could see the red carpet being set up from their hotel room.

Jessica near the red carpet at the Nokia Theater

When they weren’t at the show, she and her mom checked out the L.A. Zoo and the Grammy Museum.

Jessica at the Grammy Museum next to Cee-Lo’s outfit

They say the trip, the weather, and the experience have been perfect and we’re glad we could be a part of it here at Fox 43. And Jessica has quite the story to tell and pictures to share with her classmates at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy when she gets back home.

Jessica representing her school Nansemond-Suffolk Academy outside Nokia

Here’s some of what Cindy sent me in her own words:

“Everybody seemed so excited to be there. A host named Corey got the crowd all energized before the show, and he’d interact with the crowd between commercial breaks.
It was neat to see how fast the crew worked to change sets in that brief time during the commercial break. Staff would swarm the judges to fix make-up and hair. That made me chuckle a little bit. Keith Urban several times went to the crowd in those brief minutes and engaged. Gave one gal a Birthday hug.
Both Kree and Candice were Amazing! I couldn’t vote, because I’d be voting for both of them! Kree is a country girl, so I am sure I will be following her career more closely and certainly will see her perform again in the future, since I’m a big concert buff. I will get off the plane in Norfolk tomorrow to go directly to the Luke Bryan concert at the amphitheater. Jessica is a big Hot 100.5 listener, so she will be following Candice (& Angie who she adores) more closely.
I’m not sure what we will be doing today before the show. We may go to the Zoo if it isn’t too far.
Thanks for being a part of our excitement. This has been a very special time for my daughter & I!Jessica was able to see all of the Idols from a short distance away. Most came to the fence and signed autographs. Jessica got autographs from Angie, Lazero, Burnell, Janelle, Paul, Curtis, & Amber.The show was wonderful. It was fun to see how they do the show. Very Exciting! Both Kree and Candice were fantastic!”

Red Carpet

The warm up I mentioned in my last post is finally here.  90 and sunny.  I’ll take it…and sweat my you-know-what off during my afternoon run.  We’re gearing up for another edition of Live Music Friday with the sounds of The Longfellow St. Music Collective or Longfellow St. for short.  They recently won the Best Americana award at the Veer Magazine Local Music Awards and are releasing their debut album, Longfellow St.  They’ll be hosting their CD Release show this Saturday at The Hampton Taphouse.  I’ll mention more about that in tomorrow’s post.

Audiostrobelight has a new record out.  What You’re Running From dropped this week and you can grab it at your favorite digital download hole in the wall.  It’s pretty awesome and you should check out their high energy live show.  They have a FREE one coming up with our friends from Pilot! at Smoked Out off of Oceana Blvd. in VB Friday, May 31.  A show you should definitely check…especially since it’s FREE!

Our friends at The NorVa have recently been selected by Rolling Stone as one of the Top 20 Best Venues in the US of A.  A great honor for the venue and for our area.  They need your help in the Reader’s Poll for Best Venue.  Just click on this link and VOTE!  It’s your patriotic duty.

Now it’s time to announce the winner of the signed vinyl copy of The Last Bison’s Inheritance.  I received over 200 request for the album, which is awesome!  To give everyone a fair shot, I simply wrote down everyone’s name on a piece of paper, threw them in a bucket and picked a name.  The name I picked is Tanner Wells from Austin, TX.  Congrats Tanner and I’ll be shipping the record to you ASAP! 

That’s it for me and I’ll catch up with you tomorrow for Live Music Friday!  SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MUSIC!

Last night there were 3 tornadoes (preliminary) that hit around the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  Around 100 people were injured, and 6 people are dead.  The storms popped up quickly yesterday evening.

Storms Over Texas

Normally, this would be just another news element in the middle of the newscast.  However, today it was a big story as there has been such a lull in severe weather across U.S. this year.  We won’t see any storms like that around here, but we may see a few storms later today.

Before we get to that…let’s talk about the heat.  Yesterday, Norfolk International had a high temperature of 86 degrees.  This was far from the record which was in the low 90s, but it was a huge warmup from the previous 2 days.  Today the record is 93 (1941).  We are going for a high near 90.  It will sizzle with a lot of sunshine from this morning through the mid-afternoon.  There will be a breeze out of the west at 10-15mph.

Today’s Forecast

As we get into the late afternoon and early evening a few of the storms that are up in Pennsylvania and Maryland will try to sink south along with the cold front.  This will bring some scattered showers and storms to parts of the viewing area.  The best chance for rain will be from the Middle Peninsula to the Northern Neck and Eastern Shore.  A stray shower or storm could make it down to the Peninsula or Southside by the evening.  Tonight the front will move through the region.  This could create some spotty showers.  Tomorrow, the cold front will be south and west of us.  This front will setup and stall out over central Virginia and North Carolina.  This will do a couple of things.  1. It will produce some scattered showers and storms over central Virginia/North Carolina.  A few of those may drift east towards Hampton Roads.  Chance for rain 30%.  Also 2.  We will cool down quite a bit. Highs tomorrow will be in the upper 70s to low 80s with a north wind at 8-12mph.

That frustrating (that’s the PG version) front will sit over the region Saturday and Sunday.  It will create some scattered showers and possibly a few storms in our area.  The problem is that the timing is very tough.  Also, there just happens to be  a lot of outdoor events this weekend.  So we will try and do our best, but this will be a very tough forecast coming up.   At this time it looks like we’ll see some scattered showers early Saturday morning with a break in the midday and some more showers Saturday afternoon.  I still only have the chance for rain at 40% though… For now.

Future Trak Sat. AM

Most of the day looks wet on Sunday and Monday.  The rain chances go from 40% Saturday up to 60% for Sunday and Monday.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

Get ready for a BIG warm-up! It will certainly feel like summer across Hampton Roads this afternoon. Folks across the Midwest have seen record heat over the past few days. This warmer air from the west will begin to build in today and with the help of our southwesterly winds, highs will climb into the mid 80s this afternoon. That is about a 20° temperature jump in 24 hours. Record highs are in the low/mid 90s for Hampton Roads, so those records should be safe.

We have received a few phone calls regarding the possible 17-year cicada invasion across Hampton Roads. I did some research and this is what I have found. Brood II is the specific group of cicadas that are expected to emerge now through the next few weeks. These bugs have been underground for the past 17 years feeding on plant roots to stay alive. Brood II is supposedly very large (millions of cicadas). The cicadas will only come out of the ground when the soil temperatures are in the mid 60s, right around 64 degrees. Here are the current soil temperatures according to the 06Z NAM across the region. It shows that our soil temperatures are in the mid 50s, low 60s. That is a little bit too cool for cicadas.

NAM Soil Temperatures (10-40cm)

Cicadas come out of the ground to breed. The loud buzzing sound you hear is the sound of the males trying to attract the females. Once the cicadas mate, they die off.  They are only around for about 4-6 weeks but that is long enough to become annoyed with their loud buzzing. You don’t have to be scared of these bugs since they do not sting or bite.

We haven’t had many reports of cicadas here in Hampton Roads and there is still some question whether we will see any at all. You can view the cicada reports across the region by looking at this cicada map.

This map below shows where and when the different broods will emerge from the ground.

Cicada Brood Map

Credit: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/05/2013-cicada-swarm-guide/65101/
By looking at this map, Brood II will emerge across Central Virginia, to our west. This means we may not see too many cicadas, which is a good thing for us and for young trees, especially fruit trees, that become damaged when female cicadas deposit their eggs in small branches.

-Meteorologist Tiffany Savona

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 Surf Update:

Meteorologist Jeff Edmondson here; if you are looking to do some surfing in the warmer water and hoping for a nice swell at the same time…the wait continues. The good news is that we are just at the 60 degree barrier for the water temperatures at the oceanfront. (Croatan Beach through the  North End)

Coming up this weekend a weak storm system will bring in some rain. The best chances for it will be on Sunday and Monday as the low will be moving right over us. Once it moves offshore we should see a wind switch.

Offshore Storm Bringing A Windswell (Tuesday 8am)

Wind Speeds on Tuesday Morning

Southwest winds at 10-15mph should help to clean up the 2-4ft possible swell we could see next week. Otherwise, the surf still looks flat/minimal for our area for a solid 7-10 days. The good news is that the water will still get warmer with our daytime highs in the 70-80s. I’ll keep watch on the surf continually until late fall/early winter. So tune in at 7:30am on Saturday and Sunday morning to our newscast for a look at the beach forecast in case you are going out. I usually show a surf camera from www.surfline.com at that time on the newscast.

Go Catch Some Surf!

Meteorologist Jeff Edmondson

As I was heading out of the door this morning to head into work, I had to throw on a fleece because it was a tad chilly at 3:00am.  I thought this was May 14, two weeks away from Memorial Day, and I have to break out the long sleeves?!  I hear from Mr. Wheeler that the weather will turn around and heat up and if it doesn’t, I have a couple of great local rock bands that will turn it up.

One of my favorites bands, Revery, are filling out the calender with a slew of shows.  They will be supporting Ghost Of April’s CD release party Friday, May 24 at Smoked Out and then will head up 64 to Richmond with Seven Ten Oil to support Like A Storm’s return to Virginia.  They also have a big headlining show at the Jewish Mother Hilltop Saturday, June 29th.  Seven Ten Oil and Corbin Dallas will support and they promise a handful of surprises.  If I had to take a guess, I bet one of the surprises will be some new tunes they have been working on.  They are about to head into the studio to record the followup to their super awesome debut, Avarice & Absolution.  I have a feeling this will be an epic record. They will be adding some more dates throughout the summer, so make sure you click the this link to keep up to date with Revery.

Virginia Beach band, The Eleventh Hour are giving away their newest record, Therapy, for FREE.  That’s right: FREE.  Head on over to their bandcamp page and grab yourself a copy and if you can spare a few bucks, go ahead and pay a buck or two for it.

The Longfellow Street Music Collective will be releasing their new record, Longfellow St., this weekend.  It is a little bittersweet as they are hosting a CD release/going away show this coming Saturday.  Trey and Mallory are moving to New Orleans, so this will be their farewell Hampton Roads performance….or let’s say their last one here for a while.  They will also be our Live Music Friday featured artist this week, so make sure you tune in.  I’ll have more on their release show in Friday’s post.

The uber great Fuzz Band is gearing up to release their first EP in five years and they need to your vote in the Afro Punk Competition.  Click the link to help them out. 

That about wraps it up for me today.  For those who have emailed me about the signed copy of The Last Bison’s Inheritance, I will be announcing the winner Thursday.  Until then, get out and SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MUSIC!

Well, this morning was cold as predicted. We didn’t break the low record of 43 at Norfolk International.  The lowest reading that I saw was 45.  However, there were some very cold areas in the inland areas.  Lows were in the mid 30s in Wakefield and Gloucester. Upper 30s in Chesapeake, Franklin, and Melfa.  Brrr.

6 AM Temps This Morning

I only saw one or two reports of frost.  However, a lot of garden vegetables still don’t do well in temps in the upper 30s.  So hopefully they were ok.
Luckily the sun is out in full force this morning.

Sunshine This Morning

With the strong sunshine we will warm up quickly this morning.  Some temperatures will jump to the upper 60s this afternoon after starting in the upper 30s.  While we will see another unseasonably cool day, but there is some record heat moving into the Midwest.

Forecast High Temps

It really says something when parts of southern Minnesota will be almost 30 degrees warmer than our area.  We will be dry today, but a few sprinkles will try to brush the area as the warmer air starts to push in.  Lows will be in the low 50s tonight with a southerly wind.  Tomorrow high temps will jump to the low/mid 80s.  That will be about 20 degrees warmer than today.   We’ll see fair skies and winds out of the southwest at 10-20mph.

We’ll warm up even more for Thursday.  Highs will be in the upper 80s.  I wouldn’t even be surprised to see some 90s in the region.  Definitely some ice cream weather.  We’ll stay pretty warm into the weekend.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

CLICK HERE to watch the trailer for The Great Gatsby!  Now playing in theaters across Hampton Roads.

I have been waiting for this film to release for a year. I’ve been waiting since the first time I got wind of it April 2012.

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books of all time, and I love Baz Luhrmann and his film vision (excepting only Australia.) Moulin Rouge is on my top 10 list of favorite films of all time.  So you have to know that combining the two Baz Luhrmann directing The Great Gatsby = amazing potential!

So just in case there are a few of you that skipped reading the book in ninth grade English… The story of Jay Gatsby is historic.  Gatsby is madly in love with a girl named Daisy. Daisy loved him but needed to get out of her hometown. The only way out she could see at the time required dollar signs, and lots of them.  And Gatsby, well, he certainly had no money back then.  So she married someone else and there you have the backstory.

In the 2013 Gatsby (still taking place in the early 1920′s), we find Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) struggling with a therapist to get the story out of him.  The therapist encourages him to write it down, and so he begins… arriving in town and renting a small cottage near a mansion outside New York City.   The cottage is not far from his cousin’s house — that would be Daisy (Carey Mulligan)– who is now married to a blue blood, old money type named Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton).  Even though it’s been years of Daisy  living nearby, it’s not until Nick pays a visit that she learns who’s living across the bay.

Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) is known for throwing opulent, over-the-top, unbelievable parties at his Art Deco mansion.  People come from miles around to attend these parties and no one needs an invitation – everyone is welcome.   And soon everything is set in motion for Gatsby to meet with Daisy again after all these years — just now he has money.  Soon enough we learn that Tom — Daisy’s husband shows a whole new side of marriage and not with Daisy.

All of the story of Gatsby is there with Luhrmann’s amazing and opulent touch.  There’s love, affairs, mayhem, and murder — all of the highest caliber.   Some will find this take “over the top”, but Gatsby itself is over the top!  A perfect pairing!

Much has been made of the choice to have Mulligan playing Daisy but I found her to be just fine.   Dicaprio as Gatsby — while there are times of apparent overacting, more on this later — did an exceptional job as Jay Gatsby (throwing in just enough “old sport” tags at the end of nearly every sentence – a favorite part of the character doing what he thinks he should to fit in as a money man).   And Maguire as Carraway played right down the middle, really well done.

For me, though, this film will be remembered for its set design. There’s a lot of CGI, however, it is largely impressive with only a few exceptions. And the design of the entire set and production is gorgeous.  And a shout out to wardrobe department!  Some stunning pieces throughout!

Of course there are a few things I didn’t like about the film.  I saw it in 3-D, and while I understand it, and I feel it did magnify the opulence that the director was going for, it was actually distracting at some points.  (I am particularly thinking of some lip-synching and looping that did not pan out in some driving scenes.)  Also there are times that the literal words and the letters of the words that Nick Carraway is writing come alive on the screen and float at you in 3-D — a little distracting and I didn’t think it was necessary.  There is some overacting from many of the cast, but because of the grander scale and the larger-than-life ideal of the novel’s Gatsby, you have to believe Luhrmann did this on purpose.  At least I do.  He was going for something.  I’m sure of it. 

Even though I’m the person who has to look at the total package, and I do see its shortcomings and drawbacks, I still have to say –also being a person who just loves Gatsby and literature and film:  This Gatsby is just great, Old Sport!

FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE COOKIES

Rated PG-13 for some violent images, sexual content, smoking, partying and brief language.

We have some very cold air moving into the region. At least for May.  So you may need to cover your tomatoes tonight.  Also, please don’t throw any tomatoes at the screen!  I am just the messenger.

So here’s what’s happening.  We have a big mass of cooler air that dropped out of Canada and into the Midwest.  Yesterday this made the push into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states.  Also parts of the southeast.   So as there is a mass of colder air, there is also a big dip (trough) in the jetstream over the eastern U.S.  Meanwhile record high temps lie over the western U.S. with a lot of ridging aloft.

Cool Today & Tomorrow

The dip in the jetstream is working to create a weak area of low pressure at the surface which is just offshore.  The effect will be increasing clouds and even a few sprinkles or a light shower later today. These clouds will reinforce the chilly air.  So highs will be in the low/mid 60s with a few upper 50s north of the metro.

Forecast High Temps

Tonight we will see some clearing and near record cold temperatures.  Lows will be in the low/mid 40s in the metro.  There will probably be some upper 30s inland.  So some flowers and garden vegetables (especially tomatoes) may need to be covered up tonight.  I don’t think there will be much in terms of frost, but I wouldn’t rule out some very patch frost in some of the typically colder/rural areas.  Tomorrow we will see more sunshine as the upper level trough begins to push out.  Highs will still be in the low/mid 60s.

With the high May sun angle, we are ripe and ready to heat things up.   So the heat that is over Denver today will make a huge surge into the eastern states by Wednesday.  In fact highs will spike up to near 80 on Wednesday with mid 80s on Thursday.

Temperature Trend

It looks like the warm weather will stick around into next weekend.

Speaking of warm…CO2 levels are the highest that they have been in millions of years.  We hit 400 parts per million.  Here is more on the subject from the Capital Weather Gang: CO2 concentration.  Interesting that we have near record cold temperatures with that recent headline.  But again, this recent cooling is regional and temporary.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! I hope you all enjoyed the cooler weather today. We saw a few showers early this morning, and then saw partly to mostly cloudy skies during the afternoon. The cold front that moved through before sunrise cooled us down today and dropped the humidity, so it felt great outside! Highs were around 70 degrees closer to the water with some mid 70s inland.

Highs on Sunday

Get ready for an even bigger cool down Monday and Tuesday. Northerly winds will bring in cooler air from the north and highs will only reach the low to mid 60s both Monday and Tuesday. Average high temperature is 74 degrees this time of year. It will feel more like the end of March/beginning of April as we start off the work week. So you may need to bring that light jacket with you the next few days.

Our computer model is showing a trough or wind shift line moving through Hampton Roads tomorrow evening. This boundary will switch our winds from the northeast back to the north to bring us another reinforcing shot of cool air, at least for May standards. As this boundary moves through, it may spark off a stray shower late tomorrow afternoon/tomorrow evening.

Future Trak at 5 PM

There will be some moisture in the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere, but the lower levels will be very dry. So I am thinking that any rain that falls will evaporate before it reaches the ground. This model may not be picking up on the drier lower levels of the atmosphere. But, we will still keep about a 20% chance for an isolated shower in the forecast on Monday. The clouds will clear out Monday night and wind speeds will be fairly light, which means temperatures will be dropping very quickly. There is a chance we could be looking at record low temperatures Tuesday morning. We are forecasting low temperatures to drop into lower 40s by Tuesday morning. The record low temperature at Norfolk International Airport  is 43° set back in 2007.

Then get ready for a warm-up! Check out this temperature forecast over the next few days.

Temperature Trend

Have a great Monday!

-Meteorologist Tiffany Savona