CommonWx

You’re probably well aware of this fact – especially if you work in or have any connections to agriculture – it’s quite dry across the Commonwealth right now.

Many emergency management staff in Virginia and across the country are under staffed and under funded according to recent reporting from ProPublica. What exactly does that mean for the folks tasked with keeping their communities safe from disasters, past, present and future?

Meteorologists and other officials at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center have a new tool in their arsenal to help people across the country be better prepared for severe weather.

Spring is right around the corner – which means many farmers across the Commonwealth are hard at work preparing for the growing season.They’re doing that with the ever-growing impact of a warming climate and extreme heat events – which certainly have been documented in Virginia in recent years.

We’re a few weeks into the new year – which also happens to represent a new frontier for weather forecasting in this country.Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration introduced new weather prediction models powered by artificial intelligence.

It feels like we just did this exercise, but it's that time of year to look back at some of the most impactful (and some of my favorite) CommonWx stories from 2025.

Last month, the Virginia Climate Center at George Mason University released “the Commonwealth’s first comprehensive, science-based evaluation of how past, current and anticipated climate conditions have and will impact Virginia and its people.”

Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit the Roanoke Valley. Days of rain culminated with the Roanoke River rising 19 feet in 12 hours on Election Day, 1985.

The calendar says October, which isn’t exactly known for being a month trademarked by tornadoes across the country… but something very interesting occurred this month when it comes to severe weather in this country.

CommonWx is a weather and climate newsletter, and while this story does have ties to those fields of study, it’s more about how our earth is so intricately connected – and how little we know about those connections.