Tropical Storm Debby to Bring Heavy Rainfall Thursday and Friday

From Chief Meteorologist George Flickinger at ABC13 - WSET:

The ABC13 Weather Team has issued a Weather Alert Day for Thursday and Friday.

This is due to widespread rain, heavy at times, for the ABC13 area.

TIMING:

Debby will bring heavy rain to Virginia. While the exact amounts in the forecast will likely change, I don’t see the timing changing much: Friday will be the heaviest rain. However, heavy rain is also possible Thursday. Rain likely exiting Saturday.

AMOUNTS:

You can find computer models with varying totals—right now, I’m thinking 2” to 5” totals will be most common for our area (Roanoke, Nelson, Southside and Lynchburg area, plus everywhere in between.)

• DEBBY IS BECOMING LOPSIDED in that the heaviest rain is falling west of the center—this is atypical. The heaviest rain is usually on the east side. Drier air has been pulled into the east side of the storm.

• TRACK HAS ALSO SHIFTED WEST compared to 24 hours ago. It’s not a huge shift, but more of SW Virginia/mountains will get heavy rain thanks to the westward shift (and also to Debby’s lopsidedness!)

• This westward shift doesn’t change the forecast totals much for Central or Southside Virginia as there’s such a large area of rain expected. If the lopsidedness becomes even more pronounced, the mountains/Roanoke will get more rain than Central Virginia. (check back for updates.)

• RAIN RATES will vary between light and heavy. The rain intensity is not as severe as pop-up Summer storms, but the rain duration is much longer.

• RAIN DURATION will last 24 to 36 hours.

Keep up-to-date on the latest weather information about Tropical Storm Debby with ABC13 - WSET.