Roanoke soars to 103 degrees; another sizzler Tuesday for Virginia

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Monday was Roanoke’s hottest day since the 2012 derecho and Blacksburg’s hottest day since a couple days after it.

Roanoke peaked at 103 degrees shortly before 4 p.m., the hottest it has been in the Star City since it was 104 hours before 80 mph winds slashed trees and wrecked the power grid on June 29, 2012. Fortunately, there was no similarly stormy conclusion to Monday’s heat.

Similar sizzle to Monday’s is expected on Tuesday, however, as the latest hot spike of what amounts to an intermittent heat wave since June 20 reaches its peak with widespread 94-103 highs in all of Virginia except the higher ridges of the western side. After that, the weather pattern is changing rather dramatically with greater chances of showers and storms plus much cooler temperatures with more typical 80s highs common for several days. (We’ll discuss this pattern change more in Wednesday’s regular weekly Cardinal Weather column.)

Blacksburg hit 95 degrees on Monday, the first time that has happened since July 1, 2012. It was only the fourth day with a high temperature of 95 or higher at Blacksburg in the past 30 years.

Lynchburg barely missed 100 on Monday, topping out at 99 for the third time this summer, having done likewise on June 22 and 26. Danville’s high on Monday was 98, not quite as high as the 100-degree high on July 5, which was Danville’s first triple-digit temperature since July 8, 2012.

Danville and Lynchburg, along with other Southside and Central Virginia areas, were blessed by copious drought-easing rainfall on Friday, as a semi-tropical low-pressure system moved up the East Coast. Danville got 2 ½ inches of rain on Friday, with Lynchburg measuring 8/10 of an inch. The leftover moisture from Friday’s rainfall slowed the return of extreme heat in those areas, as solar radiation was partly used up in evaporation of fresh surface moisture, unlike locations farther west that missed the rain and have harder-baked dry ground. Roanoke climbed to 98 on Saturday while Lynchburg and Danville hung back at 92 and 93, respectively. All three locations were in the upper 90s — 99 at Roanoke, 98 at Lynchburg and 97 at Danville — by Sunday.

Even Bluefield, W.Va., reached 90 on Monday, which according to longstanding tradition means free lemonade will be served by the local Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, when it might hit 90 again. Bluefield last hit 90 on Sept. 12, 2019.

Roanoke’s 103-degree high tied a record high for July 15 first set in 1936. It also appears to be tied for the official hottest temperature thus far this summer in Cardinal News’ generally Southwest and Southside Virginia coverage area (Cumberland Gap to Cumberland County, North Carolina state line to James River), matching 103 at the John H. Kerr Dam recorded on July 6. But as additional reports from regional co-op sites are turned in Tuesday morning, it is possible another location in the region may have reached a similar or higher temperature.

The Roanoke Valley often sees its hottest temperatures as westerly winds blow down the ridges on the west rim of the valley, the air heating and drying as the winds are compressed downward. This, plus the prior extremely dry ground after missing Friday’s rain, largely explains why Roanoke was hotter than most other locations in our region on Monday.

Roanoke’s all-time record high temperature of 105 degrees occurred on Aug 5, 1930; July 10, 1936; and Aug. 21, 1983, which was the middle day of a 104-105-104 run for the Star City.

The heat that has dominated late June and July, other than a couple of brief breaks, has occurred as heat-dome high pressure has been centered in various locations over the central and eastern United States. Over the next several days, a southerly dipping jet-stream trough will replace the heat dome high, leading to cooler temperatures and more frequent and increased chances of rain. It is unclear how long the reprieve from extreme heat will last and also whether or not rainfall will be sufficient to reverse or at least significantly ease regionwide drought.

Again, more on that in Wednesday’s weekly weather column.

See also: Hot weather brings crispy fields to Southwest Virginia.

Journalist Kevin Myatt has been writing about weather for 20 years. His weekly column, appearing on Wednesdays, is sponsored by Oakey’s, a family-run, locally owned funeral home with locations throughout the Roanoke Valley.

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