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UPDATE 8:04 AM, 8/9/2024: The circulation center of the Debby moved north of Virginia before sunrise Friday, leaving only a few bands of showers across the state. Overnight there were some reports of flooded streets and small streams as there were many reports of 2 to 6 inches of rain in a swath north to south through the middle of the state, largely missing the Southwest corner, and a couple of tornadoes may have touched down in Northern Virginia. There appear to have been no reports of major river flooding or extreme flash flooding entering homes. After a few showers and perhaps thunderstorms on this Friday, the weekend will bring drier weather and not as hot as preceding days, with mostly 70s and lower to mid 80s highs. END UPDATE
Much of Virginia is getting needed rain from Debby and, as of early Thursday evening, has yet to experience extreme impacts from the once-hurricane that has only recently been demoted from tropical storm status. But there are still evening and overnight hours of possible impacts to get through with flooding and isolated tornadoes still possible.
Perhaps the most troublesome impact of Debby so far has been scattered power outages, with about 16,000 Virginia utility customers without power shortly before 6 p.m., according to Poweroutage.us. The greatest concentration has been clustered in and near the Lynchburg area, with nearly 2,000 without power in Amherst County, almost 1,400 in Campbell County and nearly 1,300 in the city of Lynchburg. Peak wind gusts have reached 36 mph at Lynchburg and may have topped 40 mph at times in surrounding areas. That is enough to knock down some trees in wet ground and throw limbs into power lines.
See also: Pittsylvania County schools to remain closed until Monday due to storm
What is now Tropical Depression Debby has dumped sheets of rain on the southern half of Virginia on this Thursday. Thus far, most amounts from the Blue Ridge and Roanoke Valley eastward across Central and Southside Virginia have been in the 1- to 3-inch range, welcome rain in many locations that have been drier than normal in prior months. Debby has begun spreading desperately needed rain into the parched Shenandoah Valley, likely to continue overnight.
As of 5 p.m., the center of Debby was located in southern North Carolina about 75 miles east of Charlotte N.C..moving north-northwest at 10 mph. As is common with tropical systems that have moved inland, Debby bears little resemblance to its well-structured buzzsaw as a Category 1 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico or its elegant comma-shaped tropical storm appearance off the South Carolina coast on Wednesday, as its moisture bands have separated from the center hundreds of miles to the north and west and there is little precipitation wrapping around its southern flank.
Debby’s center will accelerate northward overnight and Friday, reaching Pennsylvania on Friday afternoon and approaching Newfoundland by late Saturday, as a trough of low pressure and cold front moving in from the west sling-shot the remnants of the tropical storm north-northeastward. That will bring the threat of heavy rain to an end quickly across Virginia early Friday.
A back-edge band of Debby’s moisture shield has become nearly stalled from Marion and Wytheville and northward along the Virginia-West Virginia border, and doesn’t appear likely to make a lot more progress westward. Southwest Virginia areas from Bristol and Richlands westward appear as if they will get little or no rain from Debby, though some showers may rotate into some of that region on this Thursday evening.
Farther east, an expected lull has rotated into Southside Virginia, extending as far west as the Blue Ridge and Roanoke area, but new rain bands in North Carolina are rotating northwestward to fill in the gap. As these bands rotate and eventually pivot westward, additional rain will fall through the evening and overnight that could be heavy at times and add another 1-3 inches, locally more, to going rainfall totals. This may still be enough for localized flooding of small streams and roads, and some rivers may yet rise out of the banks with the drainage.
The gaps between rain bands do somewhat increase the risk of a few tornadoes developing, especially along and east of the U.S. 29 corridor (Charlottesville to Lynchburg and Danville and eastward), as these drier gaps sharpen boundaries along which atmospheric spin can be focused. As of 6 p.m., a few tornado warnings have been issued in the eastern half of Virginia, but there doesn’t appear to be any evidence of any such circulation reaching the surface.
We have a few more hours of vigilance with Debby, which means having an escape plan if you live near flood-prone stream and your location happens to experience a stalled torrential rain band, or getting to the lowest floor away from windows and covering your head if a tornado warning is issued.
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.
