Drought In The Southwest Could Affect Foliage

Recent rain from Fay and Hanna have definitely helped with the drought in central Virginia. Here are the rain totals so far this year in Richmond. You can see that we are well above normal and way above the total from last year.

Things are not looking as good for some communities to the east of I-95. I got an email from a viewer in Toano who said that they only received .75" from Hanna and need more rain. However, conditions to the southwest are even worse. These areas saw almost no rain from Hanna! Looking at the current stream flow of rivers across the area, you can see a lot of red dots indicating flow that is well below normal in that region.

Drought conditions can have a major impact on fall foliage. During the summer, moderate temperatures and above normal rainfall will yield the brightest colors. So if this trend continues, the colors could be affected in areas around Roanoke, Blacksburg and farther west.

Rain Totals From Hanna

The center of Hanna is long gone (now in New England). Below is a map of estimated rain totals across the area from today. As you can see from the map, west of I-95 got hit the hardest with heavy rains.

We have a lot of moisture in the air from these heavy rains, so expect patchy fog to develop tonight and into tomorrow morning. The fog will lift in the late morning hours and Sunday will finish partly cloudy. Enjoy it!

Aaron

Hanna Quickly Exits

Showers have now tapered to isolated sprinkles across our area as the center of Hanna races into Delaware. Winds are from the northwest 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. Winds will diminish to 10 to 20 mph from 8-10 PM, then drop to 5 to 10 mph later tonight.

Most areas around Richmond and Petersburg received 2 to 4" of rain. Totals were much higher to the west of I-95, where areas received 5 to 7". The hardest hit were Buckingham, Prince Edward and Charlotte counties, where isolated areas exceeded 8"!

Here is a map of current stream and river flow. As expected, streams are flowing well above average along and west of I-95 (indicated by the blue dots). Some streams are overflowing, which are indicated by the black dots. Also notice the red dots to the southwest corner of the state. This area received almost no rain today, so streams are flowing well below normal.