Some locations in Southwest Virginia dropped into the 30s for a second straight early September morning on Tuesday. There is even some fall color starting to show in a few trees here and there way, way early.
So how about we talk about summer heat one last time? Specifically, wrapping up the annual Cardinal Weather summer heat prediction contest.
The contest’s entry deadline was June 19, with guesses solicited for the hottest temperatures at each entrant’s choice of three locations among 10 listed for the period from June 20 to Aug. 31.
All 10 locations used in the contest experienced their hottest temperatures of summer within a week of the entry deadline. It never got as hot again the rest of the summer, at least in terms of straight temperature not factoring in the sticky dew points, as it did from June 23 to 26.
And despite the early resolution to how hot the summer would get, the winner of the contest among 38 entries needed the equivalent of double-overtime to claim the win.
Past week’s regional weather highlights
Halifax County tornado: An EF-1 tornado (scale of 0 for weakest to 5 for strongest) packing winds of 105 mph traveled 0.3 mile northeast of Cluster Springs on Thursday, Sept. 4, snapping or uprooting 50-100 trees and damaging one modular home just below its roof line, according to a National Weather Service survey.
Wind damage reports: There were about 20 reports of wind damage — mostly trees and power lines downed — turned in to the National Weather Service across Southwest and Southside Viginia with a line of thunderstorms on Thursday, Sept. 4. A tree falling on a camper injured one person near Fries in Grayson County.
Monday-Tuesday low temperatures: Burke’s Garden in Tazewell County recorded lows of 35 and 34 on Monday and Tuesday mornings, respectively, as many locations across the region dropped into the upper 30s to mid 40s, far below early September normal lows that run in the 50s to lower 60s. Roanoke’s low of 44 on Tuesday morning was the coldest it has been so early in the latter half of a calendar year since 1988.
How the contest was won
Diana Dymacek of Lexington, Brian Sweeney of Goodview, and Mike Woodford of Bedford each scored perfectly for their two best of three hottest temperature picks. For Dymacek, that was 96 for Appomattox and 92 for Blacksburg. For Sweeney, that was 97 for Roanoke and 93 for Wytheville. For Woodford, that was 96 for Lynchburg and 92 for Blacksburg. Those picks were perfect.
So the first tiebreaker is the third pick. None of the three managed a perfect card where all three choices were on the money.
Dymacek guessed 95 for Roanoke. That was 2 degrees off the Star City’s hottest temperature of 97. Sweeney guessed 101 for the John H. Kerr Dam. That was a single degree off the dam’s hottest day, 102. And Woodford guessed 96 for Roanoke. That was 1 off.
Dymacek was eliminated with the farther-off guess, leaving it between Sweeney and Woodford in a battle of Bedford County.
The second tiebreaker, fully stated in the rules back on May 28, was who sent their entry in first.
Sweeney was the last entry received on June 19. That would have made a great story if he had won the contest, since the first entry that was received won last summer’s contest. But Woodford sent his in on May 30. His came first. First come, first served.
Woodford claims the official title as winner of the 2025 Cardinal Weather summer heat prediction contest, and wins a $25 gift card.
But really, Dymacek, Sweeney and Woodford are all winners of the contest.
Remember to send photos, sign up for newsletter
Sweeney and Woodford are not strangers to Cardinal Weather. Each has submitted multiple photos that have been used in the weekly Cardinal Weather column and/or been selected as Photo of the Week for the weekly Cardinal Weather newsletter. (Subscribe here if you haven’t already — it’s FREE, in your inbox each Wednesday about 6 p.m. There are also five other Cardinal News e-mail newsletters to choose from.)
Also, remember that if you have any sort of vaguely interesting sky or weather or scenic photo, preferably from in or near Southwest or Southside Virginia (though Woodford’s photo above shows how we can bend the rules on that sometimes), send it in to weather@cardinalnews.org for consideration for use in a column or newsletter.
Strong runner-up finishers
There were five entries that missed by a total of 1 degree on their two best picks.
One of those was Jo Heinlein of Wytheville, who is becoming a powerhouse weather prognosticator, having won last year’s summer heat prediction contest — she was that first entry last year, as mentioned above — and was in a similar cluster of entrants with the second best score in the winter snowfall prediction contest. She guessed 92 for Blacksburg (correct) and 93 for Abingdon (1 off the peak of 94). She was 2 degrees off her current hometown of Wytheville, guessing 91 when it made it to 93.
Pam Burgess of Fincastle also returned to the group of runners-up, after a similar showing in the winter snowfall contest. She guessed 97 for Roanoke (correct), and then 95 for both Appomattox and Lynchburg, when both hit 96. Whichever one you count, it’s 1 degree off for the best two.
Others in the 1-degree-off group showed good geographic diversity, including Ross Suit of Clarksville, the closest entrant to the infamously hot John H. Kerr Dam, which he was only 1 degree off for guessing 101 when it hit 102. He nailed Danville’s 96 and was 1 degree off with a 95 guess for Lynchburg, where it also made 96.
Steve Hamilton of Richmond, as in the state capital, nailed Appomatox’s 96 but was 1 off on Danville, guessing 97 when it only made 96. He was also 2 degrees off for Lynchburg with a 98 guess when it only made 96.
And finally there is the only Roanoke Valley entrant in among the better entries, Trudy Muse of Vinton, who guessed 96 for Lynchburg correctly, was 1 off guessing 91 for Blacksburg, but 4 off for Roanoke at 93.
Roanoke Valley and New River Valley folks have been entering my contests for 16 years going back to my Roanoke Times days, so it is unusual to see the Roanoke Valley have only one high finisher and the New River Valley getting shut out. But also it shows the growing interest in Cardinal Weather, and Cardinal News in general, across Southwest and Southside Virginia.
Speaking of geographic diversity, this year’s heat prediction contest had the first overseas entry ever, Julie Keeble of Hampshire, U.K. Keeble’s daughter is a Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Tech, and Keeble has been reading Cardinal News to follow our region’s news and weather. She expressed some unfamiliarity with the Fahrenheit scale, and her guesses were a little on the cool side of reality, but her participation in our heat contest was most welcome.
We’ll be gearing up the winter snowfall prediction contest in a little more than a month, with a very similar format to this one.
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Below are the 10 sites used in the Cardinal Weather heat prediction contest, how hot it got, and when.
Abingdon: 94, June 25.
Appomattox: 96, June 24.
Blacksburg: 92, June 24, 25 and 26.
Clintwood: 92, June 24.
Danville: 96, June 23 and 24.
John H. Kerr Dam: 102, June 25.
Lynchburg: 96, June 23.
Martinsville: 96, June 23.
Roanoke: 97, June 24 and 25.
Wytheville: 93, June 25.
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. Sign up for his weekly newsletter:
