Saturday wasn’t that bad in Hampton Roads. Clouds did dominate and a breeze off the ocean prevented temperatures from rising that much during the afternoon. Another round of rain moved through my Virginia Beach neighborhood overnight (Saturday night). It rained very heavily for a brief period. Not much has changed since yesterday but the front has moved a little further to the north and east. Our winds should slowly have more of a southerly component as the day progresses. Rain chances remain elevated through Tuesday as the moist flow continues and a weakening upper-level low pressure system lurks to our southwest. The rain chances will remain with us through Tuesday. Temperatures should increase as we get into the mid-week period…. Tornado season got off to a slow start this season, but it has picked up big time this past week as you’ve probably seen on the news this week. An area from central Oklahoma to northwest Missouri will be the area to watch today (Sunday). The Atlantic Hurricane season isn’t that far away (June 1st) and I will be talking more and more about the predictions for this upcoming season in my future posts.

The weekend is here and so is the rain. There are many outdoor events scheduled for this weekend here in Hampton Roads and they may be impacted by the showers and thunderstorms that are expected. It will not rain all the time but there will be a chance of showers and storms throughout the weekend and the increased rain chances will remain with us into Tuesday. The wet weather is being caused by the combination of a very slow moving frontal boundary, a moist flow around a high pressure system to our northeast, and an upper-level disturbance to our west. Heavy rain is possible so be on the lookout for ponding of water on the area’s roadways. According to the NWS, the heaviest of the rain will be south and west of Hampton Roads. While widespread severe weather isn’t expected, some of the storms can be strong to severe. Believe it or not, precipitation totals this year are running slightly below normal so maybe the rain this weekend will allow us eliminate the rainfall deficit.  I’ll have an update Sunday morning.

First of all, happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers out there. I wanted to begin by discussing the weather of the past week. What was supposed to be a very unsettled early week period turned out to be fairly nice for most of us with only brief periods of wet weather. Temperatures were pleasant and the sun was out some of the time. In my Virginia Beach neighborhood, there wasn’t much rainfall, but there was some. Last night, (Saturday), my area did receive a lot of rain. I had to drive up to Charlottesville, VA so I was away most of the day. When I got home, I saw that it had rained during the day. Then, during the evening, it rained quite heavily in parts of the Hampton Roads as thunderstorms developed to our southwest and moved across the area. The current weather map has a low pressure area north of the Great Lakes with cold fronts extending south of the low. North and northwest winds will usher in much cooler air the next couple of days. Rain chances will diminish although due to very cold air for this time of year aloft, instability in the atmosphere may lead to a shower or sprinkle in spots. Warmer weather is expected later in the week.

A rather strong high pressure area extending from New England into the Canadian Maritime provinces has been producing a northeast wind, which has kept our weather cool and breezy. If it seems that the weather systems are moving very slowly across the nation, you are not imagining it. A blocking pattern has been in place for a while and this is normal for this time of year. The high is not going to move that quickly so the northeast flow will continue. In addition, an upper-level low pressure system will be slowly approaching from the southwest and this should bring us some rather unsettled weather for several days beginning on Monday. The weekend should be dry for the most part but some drizzle or light showers cannot be ruled out, especially Saturday morning. The low will be very slow to move away once it begins to affect our weather on Monday. The pattern has also resulted in some extreme weather across the country including snow in the Rockies into the North-Central part of the nation and also the wild fires in California.

High pressure should hold on long enough so that we have a dry weekend but wet weather will be at our doorstep on Sunday. Western portions of Virginia will most likely see the rain as we head into Sunday afternoon. Once the wet weather moves into Hampton Roads (which should be Monday morning), weather forecasters currently believe that our rain chances will be elevated for several days next week. That doesn’t mean it will rain each day in all parts of our region. It just means that we will have a chance of rain each day. With the onshore wind this weekend and the clouds expected early next week, no really warm air is expected for a while. I looked at the precipitation potential over the next few days from the HPC, and it appears that areas to our southwest are going to receive the most rainfall. The weather systems that will be bringing the wet weather looks like they will be quite complex, so there may be changes to the forecast as we go through the next few days. So, enjoy the weekend and make sure you get that yard work done.