CommonWx

Last fall’s Hurricane Helene brought unparalleled devastation to parts of Southwest Virginia, Northeast Tennessee and Western North Carolina.Communities there are still cleaning up months later. The storm has long passed, but its impacts may have a long tail – potentially adding to another natural disaster this part of the world typically deals with during this time of year.

State officials are asking Virginians this week to be prepared for severe weather season. That includes Tuesday's annual statewide tornado drill.

The idea of a “citizen meteorologist” has been around for a very long time. And this month – in which we celebrated President’s Day – I thought it would be good to focus on a presidential citizen meteorologist – Thomas Jefferson.

A little secret for you all – winter forecasting involves many variables that meteorologists are trying to track down to accurately communicate the risks involved with a big snowstorm.And for this month’s edition of the newsletter, I’m going to try to break down some of that nuance with the help of Virginia Tech meteorology professor Dave Carroll.

It’s hard to believe, but 2025 is right around the corner. Before we turn the calendar to a new year, I thought it’d be good to take a look back at 2024 for the last edition of this newsletter this year.

Anecdotally, it seems as if this year has been very dry across much of Virginia – with the big exceptions being the two tropical systems that move through earlier this year.

Folks who live in coastal areas are probably well aware of the risks from tropical systems.But inland communities maybe aren’t as prepared for hurricanes and tropical storms after they come ashore. As Hurricane Helene has shown us, maybe we should talk more about the risks from tropical systems to localities far removed from the coastline.

The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season passed us by last week… and you may have noticed that overall, the season has been somewhat quiet.

Many Virginia students have already returned to their classrooms for the new school year. And if they haven’t yet, they will soon.With many divisions across the state starting back earlier and earlier in the year, students are more frequently having to deal with hot temperatures as they come back to school, too.

The National Weather Service is expecting rainfall rates of two to four inches an hour at times for parts of the Commonwealth from Tropical Storm Debby.