Southwest and Southside Virginia Weather

The aurora borealis, seen at unusual strength across much of Virginia on Friday night, May 10, into the early morning of Saturday, May 11, lights the sky behind a rural barn along the Virginia-West Virginia border at the northern edge of Buchanan County in Southwest Virginia. Courtesy of Billy Bowling.

Historic aurora seen in Virginia recalls another from Civil War history

by Kevin Myatt May 15, 2024May 17, 2024

Sunspots spewing charged particles are rotating away, and clouds bringing much-needed rain have replaced the Northern Lights in our skies.

Bright green hugs the northern horizon and pillars of red lift upward from that as photographed at Explore Park just east of Roanoke on Friday evening. Photo by Kevin Myatt

Weather

Aurora borealis paints rare artwork on canvas of Virginia skies

by Kevin Myatt May 11, 2024May 12, 2024

Photos from across Southwest and Southside Virginia illustrate rare intensity and coverage of geomagnetic storm.

Lightning laces the cumulonimbus clouds of a severe thunderstorm north of Richlands in Tazewell County on April 15. Courtesy of Billy Bowling.

Weather

Storms this week bring severe risk, streaky relief from dryness

by Kevin Myatt May 8, 2024May 9, 2024

Amounts of rain, effects of storms will vary from location to location across Southwest and Southside Virginia.

Neighborhood kids, including my own two sons, built a substantial igloo out of the Jan. 15 snow that measured a little more than 4 inches in southwest Roanoke County. Young folks also dominated the 2023-24 Cardinal Weather snowfall prediction contest, as Andrew Lewis Middle School eighth graders in Salem accounted for the winner and five of the best six entries. Photo by Kevin Myatt.

Weather

Salem eighth graders dominate Cardinal Weather snowfall prediction contest

by Kevin Myatt May 4, 2024May 5, 2024

Five younger entrants go low on snowfall total picks to top field, with only one of their elders even in contention.

An Interstate 80 webcam captured a tornado on Friday, April 26, near Waverly, Nebraska, just northeast of Lincoln. Courtesy of the Nebraska Department of Transportation.

Weather

Why Virginia isn’t a tornado alley

by Kevin Myatt May 1, 2024May 1, 2024

We have tornadoes in the Old Dominion, occasionally some very bad ones. But twisters aren’t part of our culture the way they are in some other states.

Bright sun shines over the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton on a late March Friday. The sun was helping warm a chilly day then, but will be burning more heat into the landscape as its angle heightens and days lengthen. Photo by Kevin Myatt.

Weather

El Niño to La Niña transition may signal summer sizzle

by Kevin Myatt April 24, 2024April 24, 2024

Previous summers shifting between the equatorial Pacific opposites have had a tendency for extreme heat spikes in Southwest and Southside Virginia.

A red sky ends a prematurely summerlike day as the sun sets over the mountains of southwest Roanoke County on Monday, April 15. Temperatures climbed in the 80s across much of Southwest and Southside Virginia, almost scraping 90 at a few locations. Photo by Kevin Myatt.

Weather

Summer enters chat as four-season April continues

by Kevin Myatt April 17, 2024

Nearly 90-degree heat and the year’s first confirmed tornado join gusty winds, wildfires and snow in recent Southwest and Southside Virginia weather.

A closeup of the total solar eclipse over northern Arkansas on Monday, April 8, with the corona and a couple of red solar flares visible. Photo by Erica Myatt.

Weather

Twice in a lifetime: My journey to totality, 7 years after the first

by Kevin Myatt April 14, 2024April 14, 2024

There are no words that adequately describe the experience of a total solar eclipse. But here are many words that will attempt to paint a shadowy picture.

The structure of a supercell thunderstorm is seen distinctly moving over Cumberland County on Sunday, March 31. This rotating thunderstorm tracked from Rockbridge County southeastward, dropping hail along much of its route. Courtesy of Mark Skaggs.

Weather

Reader photos help tell story of region’s weather

by Kevin Myatt April 10, 2024

Cardinal News’ Southwest and Southside Virginia territory has diverse geography and weather. You can help us chronicle that, as many regional residents did with last week’s changeable weather.

The crescent of a partial solar eclipse made a brief appearance through the clouds and tree limbs outside Lane Stadium in Blacksburg last Oct. 14, hours before a Virginia Tech football victory over Wake Forest. This eclipse peaked at about 45% solar coverage locally, with a strip of annular eclipse -- a ring of sunlight around the moon, which was slightly too far away to fully cover the moon as in a total eclipse -- across the southwest part of the U.S. Monday's solar coverage will peak at 80-90% across Cardinal News territory in Southwest and Southside Virginia with a 120-mile-wide total eclipse path from Texas to Maine. Courtesy of Chris Manley.

Weather

Monday’s solar eclipse will not be matched in Virginia until 2052

by Kevin Myatt April 3, 2024April 7, 2024

Over 80% of the sun will be blocked in Southwest and Southside Virginia, slightly less than in the 2017 eclipse.

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