Kevin Myatt's Weather Wonders

01/15/2026

This reader-submitted photo really goes well with the headline on today's Cardinal News weather column, linked below.

Tonight and Thursday morning's window of wintry intrigue will pass with some light rain changing to snow mostly west of the Blue Ridge, with streaky minor amounts, perhaps 1-3 inches on higher ridges and west-facing slopes west of I-77 and near West Virginia state line. Don't be stunned to see a skiff or some snowflakes flung through the air almost anywhere in Southwest or Southside Virginia early Thursday, but widespread significant snowfall is not expected. Some very cold temperatures move in, mostly staying below freezing on Thursday with widespread teens lows on Friday morning, some perhaps in single digits.

We are going to have to keep a close eye on Sunday for a storm system affecting the Southeast U.S. and Mid-Atlantic region. There is a lot of mixed data on what this might do and it's still four days away. Early lean is that it mostly stays east of our region but there are some signals pointing to a westward shift with time. We will revisit in the days ahead.

Looking at the current state of the pattern and what's ahead in this week's Cardinal News weather column.

Nothing screams “winter storm” just yet for Virginia, but we are entering a period when there may be some possibilities every few days.

01/13/2026

Any snow Wednesday night and Thursday morning looking minor and mainly west of the Blue Ridge. An upper-air low pressure system is not digging far enough south to trigger a larger storm for our region, and doesn't appear likely to spin up a very big one even farther north and east. Some light accumulations, mostly an inch or less, locally 2-3 in higher or west-facing mountainsides where upslope flow enhances the intensity, are possible. A new cold front will usher in a very cold and windy day on Thursday, slowly moderating back to near-normal mid January cold over the weekend into next week. There are some other systems to watch every 3-4 days or so and likely some further punches of cold air for the remainder of this month. We'll check them out one by one to see if any of them link the pieces up enough for a more widespread winter storm. Early lean is that the storm system near the MLK Jr. holiday will also be fairly dry, but as both of the two snows in early December showed, things can turn fairly quickly within 48 hours of a possible snow event. My early hunch based on modeling and how the pattern is playing out is that a storm system near Jan. 23-25 may be more conducive for a widespread snow or wintry mix in or near our region, but that's little more than slightly educated speculation at this point. It could easily fit in between cold shots and be more rain.

A weather system will cross the area Wednesday into Thursday. Rain is first expected Wednesday. Colder air arrives Wednesday night with rain changing to snow over the mountains - rain ending over the Piedmont. Low wind chills for Thursday morning commute. Light snow ending Thursday across the mountains.

01/11/2026

Windy, blustery weather returns on this Sunday, as highs stall in the 30s/40s and then start to fall, and there may be snowflakes in the air at times along and west of the Blue Ridge. Saturday's widespread soaking rain at least means that wildfire danger is low on such a gusty day.

There are multiple systems to watch starting late this week and continuing through and past the MLK Jr. holiday as the pattern shifts to one with more of a jet stream dip into the eastern U.S., bringing occasional shots of cold air and storm tracks digging deeper to the south. It's way too early to get into the details of any of them. My early feeling on the first one toward the latter half of this week is that it will come together a hair too late for a winter storm in our backyard, but of course that is subject to change as we move forward, and even the premature stage of a larger winter storm could yield some snow, mix, or cold rain. There's no point even speculating about later systems until the first is more established. This does not look like a frigid cold period, at least at first, but rather occasional shots of somewhat colder than normal temperatures (30s highs, teens lows) with milder near-normal (40s highs, 20s lows, generally) or even slightly-above-normal temperature days (50s highs, sometimes) in between.

Northwest winds of 15 to 25 mph may gust over 50 mph today across the higher elevations along and west of the Blue Ridge. A Wind Advisory is in effect for everywhere west of the Blue Ridge. Gusty winds could blow down a few trees, which may result in isolated power outages. The winds should fade tonight.

01/08/2026

Chances are ticking upward for a fairly ample rain -- maybe near an inch for many in Southwest/Southside Virginia -- this Friday night and Saturday, and the pattern after that may hold some potential for wintry intrigue in the following couple of weeks. Before all that, enjoy a couple more days of mild temperatures, many locations topping 60. This week's Cardinal News weather column is sort of caught in the middle of these changes (I had to reword some of it between the Tuesday night writing and the Wednesday afternoon posting) pondering the winter pause and ongoing dryness.

As winter has taken a break from the cold and snow that started December, a lengthy pattern of general dryness continues.

01/06/2026

We have another bulge of warmer than normal temperatures expanding toward Virginia over the next few days, many spots reaching the 60s, before a weekend cold front and a chilldown into next week. For now this looks like seasonal cold not extreme, but there may be a window to watch for wintry precipitation approaching the MLK Jr. Day holiday. Many details yet to sort out for the latter half of January, but generally looks colder with maybe a few moist systems to monitor.

Some Friday-Saturday showers but rain doesn't look likely to be extensive or voluminous enough to dent continuing drought.

01/02/2026

With a low passing south of us on Saturday and a high to the north pressing in some cold air, there is at least some potential for snow or wintry mix in parts of Virginia on the north edge of a rain shield extending to the south. But there are two issues that make anything significant unlikely: (1) marginal cold air at the surface; (2) weak moisture flow. There may end up being not much rain, even, north of the Virginia-North Carolina border, and the air it encounters farther north down here near the ground where we live may be in the upper 30s to lower 40s. Don't be shocked to see a few wet snowflakes on Saturday along the U.S. 460 corridor (Blacksburg-Roanoke-Lynchburg) and northward, but significant accumulation is unlikely and a barely dampening rain or missing it all to the south probably has a better chance of happening. If there is enough snow anywhere to whiten things up, higher elevations above 3,000 feet probably have the best chance.

Next week looks dry and relatively mild, maybe even some 60s again. There are still some signs of northern latitude furniture-moving that would lead to a colder pattern in mid to late January, but it's not happening next week.

(Weather map for Saturday courtesy of Weather Prediction Center, NOAA)

12/31/2025

I hope this was a blessed 2025 and that 2026 will be even better for each of you. Ending the year looking back at the top 10 weather stories of 2025 for Cardinal News' Southwest and Southside Virginia coverage area, linked below. I always say "stories" instead of "events" since some of these were ongoing long-term trends and others -- No. 1 in particular -- encompassed multiple events over a few days. Given widespread impact I think No. 1 is solid but everything else is debatable. Perceptions will vary from location to location over a wide region.

That is true even this week. After some surprisingly vigorous snow showers in Virginia's southwest corner on Tuesday morning, another round of snow showers blowing over the mountains is due with a reinforcement of fairly cold air on this New Year's Eve night into New Year's Day. Tazewell County is under a winter weather advisory that extends across much of West Virginia, with winter storm warnings in the steepest mountainous terrain, where some snow may accumulate a few to several inches. For most of us in western and southern Virginia, there may be a few flurries, especially along/west of I-81, but mostly will be just windy chill with 20s/30s lows and 30s/40s highs.

There is a sneaky low-pressure system sliding across the South on Saturday, the northern fringe of which may have some wintry precipitation at the edge of a larger area of light rain. Other than that, the weekend into next week looks uneventful, highs in 40s/50s, lows in 20s/30s, mostly. Down the road there continue to be some signals of a possible colder and stormier pattern toward mid-late January, but as always, very iffy this far out. Nothing dramatic in terms of cold, warmth, or any kind of precipitation looks to be on the horizon through the first 7-10 days of 2026, as of now.

The top 10 weather stories of 2025 begin with a February stretch that could have made up nearly half the list separated into its different inclement weather types.

12/29/2025

A strong cold front is set to move across Virginia on this Monday morning with a shot of Arctic air driven by gusty west to northwest winds. Gusts may top 60 mph on western Virginia ridge tops with 40-55 mph gusts possible most other locations, causing some tree damage and sproadic to scattered power outages. Winds will continue gusty through Monday night and into early Tuesday before gradually calming down. The week ahead will be mostly dry and seasonably cold, mostly 40s highs/20s lows. There is a precipitation system to watch for Saturday, may end up being pushed south of us, but could be marginal for cold rain/wintry precipitation if its track edges a bit northward.

Gusty west winds will arrive today. The higher elevations along the Blue Ridge could experience gusts up to 60 mph. The winds will peak during this evening but continue to remain strong through into Tuesday morning.

12/26/2025

A cold-air damming wedge, illustrated vividly on the map below, is pushing back the Christmastime warm spell in most of Southwest and Southside Virginia on this Friday, perhaps excluding the southwest tip that stays just west of the wedge. CAD refers to high pressure to the pressing cold air southward in the eastern U.S., banking it against the Appalachians. It will be a cloudy, drippy day with temperatures stuck mostly in the 40s, not really "cold" by late December standards, just sorta normal. The mild air is expected to punch back on Saturday -- expected westerly winds are a silver bullet against the wedge, unlike the stubborn efforts to erode it from the south or east that often fall short of forecasts. Much colder weather arrives for the week ahead behind a strong cold front late Monday.

Most locations in our region topped 60 degrees for three straight days Dec. 23-25. Roanoke, Lynchburg and northward fell short of 60 on Christmas itself with showers and weak wedge, but a brief evening warmth surge almost got it to 60 after dark (59 at Roanoke, 57 at Lynchburg). Danville hit 70 on Christmas Eve and 71 on Christmas Day. Several locations in western and central North Carolina set Christmas warmth records with mid-upper 70s highs, and many records were set in states to the west of us, which will continue into the weekend. Mid- to long-range patterns suggest surges of colder air will make for a variable temperature pattern to end 2025 and begin 2026, perhaps settling into a more widespread colder pattern a couple weeks deep into January. But, quoting Yoda from Star Wars: "Difficult to see; always in motion is the future."

12/23/2025

We are still likely headed for a mild Christmas with lots of 60s highs across Southwest/Southside Virginia. These probably will not be records, as most of those are upper 60s to mid 70s, set mostly in 1964, 1982, 2015 or 2021 --78 on Christmas 1982 at Abingdon being perhaps the most extreme. The map below shows the national coverage of warmer temps on Christmas, with oranges and reds depicting likely 60+.

Beyond Christmas, though, things are getting murkier, and probably substantially colder into next week than previously thought. This week as a whole appears likely to be more showery with upper-level disturbances circling the heat dome to our west and stubborn frontal boundaries, so visions of sunny Yuletide warmth may not come to fruition. On Friday, it now appears that instead of possible 70ish highs, there will be more rain and a cooler wedge of air (40s/50s) working down from the Northeast U.S., banked against the mountains. Weekend temperatures likely rebound to some more 60s, but a sharp cold front may arrive early next week to quickly curtail the Christmas week warmth.

High-pressure blocking in the northern latitudes is repositioning a step or two faster than appeared likely a couple days ago, and this is allowing for deeper pushes of cold air against the central U.S. heat dome. Whether this results in any pre-New Year's wintry precipitation for our region remains to be seen. Temperatures may seesaw quite a bit through next week and into early 2026.

12/22/2025

NEW HOLIDAY WEEK WEATHER UPDATE (12/23) LINKED HERE: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HoyyYY4Ph/

Coldest temperatures of this Christmas week are the upper teens to mid 20s most of us in Southwest/Southside Virginia woke up to on this Monday morning, with only 40s highs, like a fairly typical early winter day. The rest of the week and even into next week will be controlled by a large dome of high pressure over the central U.S. that will likely bring the nation's warmest Christmas on record for the size and intensity of the warm spell. For our backyard, it will be among the top few warmest Christmases on record, probably not quite the record-holder for most, with many 60s highs, and the day after Christmas may push above 70 for some. There is no sign yet of the warm air dome fully collapsing even into January, but in time it may erode or get pushed westward with colder air returning to the East, as the Northeast U.S. never quite gets under the warm-air dome and some blocking high pressure repositions in the northern latitudes.

The remainder of 2025 looks mostly dry with possibly a few weak showery periods as frontal systems make it near or us or through, maybe some sprinkles on a windy Tuesday and again Christmas Eve. There is no sign yet of the warm-air dome fully collapsing even into early January, but in time it may erode or get pushed westward with colder air spreading over more of the East as the warm air never quite overtakes the Northeast U.S. and high pressure in the northern latitudes repositions. Having two contrasting masses on the map conflicting with each other could eventually supply the makings of a large storm system somewhere in the interface between them. Something to watch for in early 2026.

12/18/2025

After some light-moderate rain from the afternoon through overnight (mostly .25 to .75 inch), a cold front will bring some gusty winds and a brief relapse of cold, windy weather to Southwest/Southside Virginia on Friday, temperatures stuck in the 30s and 40s, with widespread 20s by Saturday morning. Wind advisories and high wind watches are out along and west of the Blue Ridge for potential gusts exceeding 40 or even 50 mph.

Daytime temperatures rebound quickly into the 50s for most by Saturday and most days leading to Christmas follow suit.

In the first reply below, see this week's Cardinal News weather column looking at where we've been and where we're going with the weather in this final month of 2025.

Strong and Gusty Winds will arrive behind the rainfall for Friday and Friday Night. A High Wind Watch is in effect for the southern Blue Ridge from Boone to Roanoke where winds could be 15 to 25 MPH, with gusts up to 50 MPH possible. A Wind Advisory is in effect for the mountains, along and west of the Blue Ridge, with winds of 20 to 30 MPH, with gusts up to 58 MPH possible.