We’re tracking some strong storms over the Tennessee Valley this afternoon as another low-pressure center in the middle and upper levels of the atmosphere pushes into the area. Already some strong storms have formed well to our southwest and these are pushing towards us. For us, one severe storm cell did pop up just to our south and produced a strong storm over I-81 at Wytheville, VA, but it faded almost as quickly as it strengthened.
The Futurecast does have the storms re-developing and moving through the area later tonight and into tomorrow. As we’ve seen regularly over the past week with the previous upper-level disturbance, the storms will push through later in the evening and into early Friday morning.
The Storm Prediction Center has placed parts of our area in the “Slight” risk category for severe storms. As we have already seen today, this is around and just south of the West Virginia/Virginia line. The only county in our area fully included is Tazewell County, but parts of Wyoming and Mercer Counties are also included. All other areas are in the “Marginal” risk category for severe storms.
The main threat with any severe storms that do form will be damaging wind gusts, but with cold air aloft and the possibility for strong updrafts in the storms, large hail is also a significant threat.
On the positive side, unlike the previous disturbance that stalled to our north, this system is not a slow mover, so rainfall totals over the next couple of days will not be high enough to raise significant flooding concerns. The storms themselves will have some get up and go, so only the usual issues with ponding and standing water in low-lying spots will be seen.
And with the system pushing to the east quickly, it leaves us in time for us to see a nice weekend. Highs over the two weekend days will be quite different, below the normal on Saturday, but well above it on Sunday. The next chance for showers and storms returns to the forecast by Monday as a slow moving (and slow evolving) storm comes at us from the Deep South.
