Precipitation: The Perfect Party Pooper

All it takes is a heavy downpour to ruin a perfectly fine festival. Memorial Day Monday started like the past few days, warm and humid. By lunchtime, cumulus development could be seen across the Roanoke Valley. By 2pm, the thunder rolled, and the rain rolled into downtown Roanoke. The Paul Jones Band had just finished their set at Festival in the Park when the large raindrops started pounding the hot pavement.

When it rains, it pours. And it did. Here's a photo sent in by Allen Rader of the low-lying areas of Elmwood Park. Can you say canoe? Speaking of canoe. I'm hoping to "set sail" this weekend along the James in Buchanan. They are having a Children's Fishing Carnival (click for info) for families along the James River. It's free and fun for all ages...and skills.

Spotty... At Best!

Hope you had a great holiday weekend! While most of us stayed dry, there were certainly some heavier rains around the area.

From 6:30pm-7:00pm Saturday evening, our NEWS7 WeatherBug rain gauge measured 1.08" of rain here at WDBJ. Over an inch of rain in 30 minutes! Meanwhile, just a couple miles away, our WeatherBug site at the Science Museum on Campbell Avenue only measured 0.06". Location, location location!

While Saturday evening's rain meant we didn't have to water the Weather Garden (by the way; it's looking - and tasting - great!), other folks in nearby neighborhoods got little to nothing. The same forecast should play out today on Memorial Day. With any luck rain won't alter your plans, but we sure need the moisture.

Have a great and safe Memorial Day! --Jay

Treehogs...A Sign Of Global Warming

As the earth is warming, many animals will be forced to go to higher ground, or in this case, a tree. I'm just kidding. I had to find some way to tie this photo in with weather since this is the weather blog.

This great photo was sent to us from Henry Whitehurst of Pulaski. No it's not a giant squirrel. It's a groundhog. I had no idea they could climb trees. I've only seen them in meadows, walking on the sides of roads, or in some cases in the middle of the road...upside down (if you know what I mean). Turns out groundhogs will climb a tree to sun itself or to escape a predator.

Who knew? Thanks for the photo Henry. The funniest part would be watching that joker come back down. --Brent

It Could Happen Again...

The SkyTracker7 Weather Team has reminded our viewers many times this is Hurricane Preparedness Week. For whatever reason, there are a surprising amount of people who don't prepare for these storms - perhaps because we live so far from the coast.

History has proven tropical systems can have devastating affects on the Commonwealth. You need to look no farther than Camille in 1969 for proof.

Camille made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane along the Mississippi Coast in mid-August, 1969. A few days later, 27"-31" of heavy tropical rains fell in 3 to 5 hours over Nelson County in central Virginia. The rain fell at night, washing out roads and hillsides. 113 people died in Virginia due to the flash flooding.

So, remember - now is the time to prepare - not during an emergency! Who knows when the next Camille may strike our state. --Jay

NOAA Releases 2007 Hurricane Forecast

The 2006 seasonal hurricane predictions proved to be too high when an unexpected El Niño rapidly developed and created an environment unfavorable for tropical development. This year, El Niño is no more, and the hurricane forecasters at NOAA are once again predicting a 75% chance that we'll see an above normal season. Here are their numbers released this morning at a press conference.



Appropriately enough, this is Hurricance Preparedness Week in Virginia, and across the Nation. Southwest Virginia has been impacted by hurricanes throughout history with devasting results. Hurricane Camille, Hugo, tornado outbreaks with Ivan and major flooding with Jeane. It's not wind and storm surge, rather Inland flooding that is our main concern here. As heavy, tropical rain falls, the mountains funnel it all into the valleys where flooding is a common occurence. Now is the time to prepare, as it will eventually happen again.

-Find out if you're in a flood-prone area
-Purchase flood insurance if necessary
-Put together a disaster kit and evacuation plan
-Obey ALL watches and warnings issued
-NEVER drive through flooded roads.

Severe weather can be scary no matter how much warning time you have, but by preparing early, you might just end up saving property and lives.

--Brent

Wing And A Prayer

Wellington, New Zealand is the second windiest city in the world, which would explain the wild plane landings in this collection of videos. Wellington is located next to Cook Strait, which forms a narrow gap between the mountain ranges of the North and South Islands. This gap between the islands and mountain ranges accelerates the wind through the Cook Strait making Wellington a very windy city. The video below is proof. It's a montage of footage showing planes landing at Wellington International Airport.





Umm. I think I'll be traveling there by boat. -Brent

Snow in May?

I couldn't believe the email when I saw it, but snow was falling this 18th Day of May on Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia. This photo is out on the Widowmaker Slope/ Soaring Eagle Quad Lift at the ski resort where temperatures are in the upper 30's this morning.

A disturbance is passing overhead as we speak creating lift in the atmosphere and also ushering in a second shot of cool temperatures. Just cool enough for snow in some areas. While it won't be enough for skis, a good May snowball fight might be in store for folks on the mountain.

Thanks for the photos Lea. --Brent

Same Place...New Look

It's been a while in the making, but we've taken all those suggestions...and some complaints about our weather section, and put them together to design a newly improved WDBJ7.com weather section. Many may be intimidated by the new look, but trust me, everything that was there before is still there...plus a whole lot more. The most important features are the forecast discussion at the top and the map center below. This is where you will view the Titan Radar, Lightning maps as well as links to other important graphics. The features you've come to love are still there, and there's many new features.

• Quickly check in with your favorite local weather camera at the top-right of the page, along with cameras from all over the world.
• Be a weather spotter and conveniantly submit your storm reports
• Track the latest tropical storms and even archives hurricanes in our new hurricane center.
• Read the up to the minute environmental news headlines and listen to weather podcasts using our live feed center.

There's a whole lot more, just get in there and give it a click. We hope you enjoy the new features and for those that don't like change, aren't too unhappy with the moving around of the old ones. It's all in an effort to bring the areas best weather coverage from the television...to the web. Enjoy!

--Brent

Deadly Kansas Tornado

95% of Greensburg, KS was destroyed late Friday night, May 4th, when a tornado stuck that community. Reports confirm eight residents were killed, and many more were injured. Severe weather continued all weekend across the Central Plains and the Midwest.

According to the National Weather Service, the Greensburg tornado was an F-5, the most powerful tornado possible. The tornado cut a 22-mile long path, and the twister was an amazing 1.7 miles wide!

The last tornado of this magnitude was almost exactly eight years earlier, when a tornado struck Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999, killing 36 people. --Jay

Watch Out For The Lightning!

Carrie Perry, a teacher at Goodview Elementary School supplied us with these pictures. She says the tree on her grandparents property in Bedford County was nearly 300 years old! Firefighters tell her and her family the tree may have been struck by lightning days before it actually caught on fire. After it dried out after a recent storm, the tree ignited. Wow... you don't see that everyday! --Jay

Effinger Students Take Studio Tour

Hundreds of visitors come on tours of Your Hometown Station each year. We were fortunate enough to have some students from Effinger Elementary School drop by for a tour and weather visit.

Robin and Brent teamed up to show them the importance of conservation and recycling, as well as how to create a cloud inside a 2-liter bottle. The hightlight was the tour around the building.

A visit inside the studio and outside to the Weather Deck and Garden were some of the highlights. Hope everyone had a great time. We enjoyed your visit!

Brent