“Some like it hot,” a 1980s pop song reminds us.
Those lyrics aren’t really about weather, but they are accurate in terms of people’s weather preferences, here and elsewhere.
As temperatures inevitably begin heating up each summer, and our region recently experienced or soon will experience some of its first 90-degree temperatures (we get to that below), there is lots of groaning from those who do not like hot weather, who would prefer it stay below 80 all year. But sunny, hot days also have a sizable rooting section, as this is prime time for water sports and wearing flip-flops while grilling and drinking cold beverages.
The summer heat love/hate divide isn’t as wide and contentious as the snow lover/winter hater canyon each winter, but it definitely exists. Just about every weather type has a fan club, and just about every weather type can be destructive or deadly taken to extremes. (Speaking of snow and heat — we’re still taking guesses in the heat prediction contest through June 19, the summer analog to the popular winter snowfall prediction contest. Read through to the bottom of the column for the rules.)
We are just starting to get to temperatures that could be described as “hot,” though this will depend largely on one’s own geographical upbringing. Just as people from farther north scoff at our winters and people from the central U.S. look down upon our often comparatively puny thunderstorms, people who grew up in more southern climes often find our summers to be mild, our more extreme temperatures being closer to the typical summer temperatures they grew up with.
Weather patterns ahead are starting to favor broad, but not especially strong, high pressure that will build to our west then overspread the eastern U.S. before flattening out over much of the southern half of the U.S. in the next several days. This will favor widespread somewhat warmer than normal temperatures, but probably not a brutal widespread heat wave. Fronts and storm systems will continue to swing through on fast jet stream winds north of the high, allowing some occasional periods of showers and storms for us, the next coming this weekend after a couple days that may scrape 90 degrees in many of our region’s lower elevations.
First 90s are a bit tardy
It is true that the bulk of our 90-degree days using climate history as a guide are yet to come in Cardinal News’ Southwest and Southside Virginia coverage area, mostly happening from late June to early September. But it’s also true that, typically, we’ve had already a scrape or two with 90-degree temperatures by now in our region’s lower elevation areas.
Friday, June 6, was finally that day for Danville and Lynchburg, which each recorded its first 90-degree high temperatures of the season. It came nearly four weeks late compared to the century-plus average of May 10 for the first 90-degree temperature of the season at Danville and more than two weeks late at Lynchburg, where it first happens May 21 on average.
South Boston topped out at 91 on Friday also, while Martinsville recorded its first 90 of 2025 a day later. The John H. Kerr Dam in Mecklenburg County also hit 90 on Saturday, but the dam, often a regional hot spot, had already recorded Cardinal News country’s first 90-plus temperatures of the year three times in early May.
Roanoke is still waiting for its first 90-degree day of 2025, averaging May 19 for its first 90 or higher temperature going back to 1912. It is looking like Thursday, June 12, or Friday, June 13, has a good chance to finally crack 90 in the Star City.
Only 20 years in the past 113 have had a later date than today’s June 11 for the first 90-degree high temperature at Roanoke, only 17 later than June 13, with the latest being July 15 in 1979. (The earliest was March 19 in 1945.)
Proving that lateness of the first 90-degree temperature doesn’t necessarily portend a milder summer, 2012 had a June 19 first 90-degree high at Roanoke, but then moved into a brutal heat wave from June 28 to July 8 with four 100-plus temperatures and every day but one reaching at least 95.
All of the locations mentioned so far have never had a summer in which temperatures didn’t reach 90 degrees. But for those who live in the higher elevations west of these, having 90-degree days is never a guarantee.
If you are located somewhere in our region that is 2,000 feet or higher in elevation, which is many places along and west of the Blue Ridge, your summer always has a decent mathematical chance of never having a 90-degree day.
At Wytheville, elevation about 2,200 feet, there is a one in four chance, historically, of having no 90-degree days in the entire year — 23 of the past 95. And all these non-90 years weren’t in some globally cooler past — neither 2020 nor 2021 had a 90-degree at Wytheville, and before that, neither did 2013 or 2014. Six other years since 2000 also failed to reach 90 degrees at Wytheville.
Blacksburg at similar elevation as Wytheville has about a one in five chance at a 90-less summer, 24 of 132 years on record. Just a decade ago, Blacksburg went a record 1,475 days — from July 9, 2012, to July 23, 2016 — without a single day reaching or exceeding 90 degrees. Three straight entire years — 2013, 2014 and 2015 — did not poke the 90-degree mark at Blacksburg.
Then there’s Burke’s Garden, at about 3,000 feet despite being in a Tazewell County valley entire ringed by mountain ridges, where your odds are only 1 in 5 that you will see a 90-degree day in any given year, as only 27 of 129 years on record have reached 90 degrees at least once. There hasn’t been a 90-degree high temperature in the cool Garden since 2012.
How to enter Cardinal Weather heat prediction contest
This discussion of 90-degree weather brings us back to how you can enter the Cardinal Weather summer heat prediction contest. Here are the guidelines:
(1) Select THREE locations out of the 10 listed at the bottom of this column. These are the same as the snowfall contest except the John H. Kerr Dam in Mecklenburg County replaces Burke’s Garden in Tazewell County, putting our region’s often-hottest official sensor site in place of what is often the coldest and snowiest.
(2) Guess the highest temperature for each of those three between June 20 and Aug. 31. (NOTE: These should be rounded to nearest whole degree Fahrenheit. If you send 99.2, your entry will be rounded to 99.)
(3) Email your guesses to weather@cardinalnews.org. Give me your name and where you live (general location — town, city, county or portion of county — not specific address). It is OK to include more than one entry on the same email, for different family members (no age limits!), or a group, or something of that nature, just make sure names are clearly labeled for each set of picks.
(4) Deadline for receiving entries is 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, June 19.
The winner of a $25 gift card for first place will be whoever misses the highest temperature by the fewest number of degrees for the best two of their three picks. If there is a tie, we’ll consider the third pick as a tiebreaker. If it’s still tied, whoever sends me their entry first wins.
If I get 100 entries, I’ll boost it to a $50 gift card for first place and $25 for second place.
Any and all winners, plus some close runner-up finishers, will be recognized in a September edition of this weather column.
The 10 locations, from which you chose three, are: Abingdon, Appomattox, Blacksburg, Clintwood, Danville, John H. Kerr Dam, Lynchburg, Martinsville, Roanoke, Wytheville.
These were chosen for geographical distribution across Cardinal News’ Southwest and Southside Virginia coverage area and for availability and consistency of officially verifiable weather data. (John H. Kerr Dam is typically the region’s hot spot, holding the analogous place in this contest as Burke’s Garden, often the snowiest locale in the snowfall contest.)
If you want some historical ranges of summer high temperatures at these locations, you can refer to the May 28 Cardinal Weather column linked here.
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:
