Somewhere, there will probably be a social media or television meteorologist who posts a shocking and outlandish forecast as an April Fools’ Day joke.
Truth of the matter, though, is that every day is April Fools’ Day on the internet.
Fake weather, ranging from doctored or entirely invented images purporting to be major weather events to outrageously alarmist forecasts many days out based on thin or no evidence, is now endemic in the social media world.
It’s not strictly an April 1 phenomenon, and sadly, most of it is spun as being truth, not a joke.
In this space and on my online entities, I will never knowingly post false weather, even as an April Fools’ Day joke.
But there are plenty of weird but entirely true facts about our region’s recent weather that may seem foolish.
More tornadoes this year in Martinsville than …
Definitely not a joking matter is the tornado that touched down near Martinsville High School on March 16.
Blessedly, the tornado was relatively weak — EF-0 with 80 mph winds — with the main damage being two utility poles.
Also, Martinsville schools had been let out for the day specifically due to the threat of severe storms. That so many schools were dismissed across the state for what turned out to be an overall underwhelming level of severe weather has been widely criticized — but in Martinsville’s case, considering there was a tornado right outside the school, it may seem more justified.
Statistically, the city of Martinsville now has one National Weather Service-confirmed tornado for 2026. That is more than:
· Martinsville’s total number of 100-degree days from 2013 to present. (zero)
· Martinsville’s total snowfall in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 winters combined. (0.1 inch)
· The number of solar eclipses in which Martinsville will experience full totality between Aug. 7, 1869, and August 16, 2566. (zero)
Martinsville’s number of confirmed tornadoes in 2026 is also equal to the number of Martinsville Speedway NASCAR races delayed by snow: One, on March 24, 2018.
Exceptional August downpour proves rule of long-term drought?
Most of our region continues in a moderate to severe drought in the latest U.S. Drought Monitor.
We didn’t get to this stage overnight, but with a series of relatively dry months. Here is one progression of statistics that shows that.
On Aug. 21 of last year, parts of Roanoke city were deluged by flash-flooding rain from a slow-moving thunderstorm.
The official gauge at the airport was near the center of the deluge, recording 4.27 inches of rain in just two hours.
In two hours on that August evening, Roanoke recorded more rainfall than in the entire subsequent month of:
· September: 2.22 inches
· October: 1.68 inches
· November: 0.52 inches
· December: 2.13 inches
· January: 2.78 inches
· February: 2.00 inches
· March: 1.71 inches
If you add up the numbers, you’ll see that Roanoke’s rain total for two hours on Aug. 21 was more than multiple two-month periods in that span (October-November, November-December, February-March) and darn near as much (just 0.15 inch short) as all of meteorological autumn (4.42 inches for September, October, and November combined).
Marching to the air conditioner thermostat
We’ve had a few hot days this March — not just springlike warm, but summerlike hot.
Tuesday was Danville’s ninth March day at or above 80 degrees, Lynchburg’s seventh and Roanoke’s sixth — second most or tied for second most on record for highs 80 degrees or higher in March at all three locations.
The hottest temperatures of this March, averaging 5 to 7 degrees above normal, was warmer than most of the high temperatures of last August, an often sizzling summer month that came in 3 to 7 degrees below below normal in 2025.
Some examples:
· Danville: 89, hotter than 28 of 31 days last August.
· South Boston: 90, hotter than 27 of 31 days last August.
· Lynchburg: 87, hotter than 26 of 31 days last August.
· Martinsville: 87, hotter than 24 of 31 days last August.
· Roanoke: 87, hotter than 24 of 31 days last August.
· Clintwood: 83, hotter than 24 of 31 days last August.
· Wytheville: 81, hotter than 20 of 31 days last August.
· Blacksburg: 81, hotter than 19 of 31 days last August.
What if Western cities were in our snowfall contest?
We will end by listing the final rounded-to-the-nearest inch on snowfall from Dec. 1 to March 31 that will determine who won the annual Cardinal Weather snowfall prediction contest.
The contest isn’t graded yet, so we can’t congratulate a winner yet. That will come in the next couple of weeks.
Instead of alphabetical order, this list is in greatest-to-least snowfall order for the 10 sites used in the contest … and I’ve taken the liberty to insert two Western U.S. cities that usually get much more snowfall than our region does, but did not this season with prolonged warmth and dryness through winter.
You’ll be able to pick them out easily. (The last one on the list isn’t the same as our region’s Saltville, which got four times as much snow as the salty city listed.)
· Burke’s Garden 40
· Clintwood 36
· Denver 24
· Blacksburg 23
· Wytheville 17
· Appomattox 16
· Abingdon 15
· Roanoke 14
· Danville 13
· Lynchburg 12
· Martinsville 12
· Salt Lake City 3
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.
To submit a photo, send it to weather@cardinalnews.org or tweet it to @CardinalNewsVa or @KevinMyattWx. Please identify the location and date of the photo with each submission.
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