Pocahontas Elementary School Visit

I headed west this morning, out HWY 60 to Powhatan, to speak with the fourth graders (and a few 1st graders) at Pocahontas Elementary School.  The group of about 150 students was very attentive and had plenty of good questions for me about the hows and whys of weather in central Virginia.  We covered everything from tornadoes and hurricanes to sleet and snow.  I took an alternate route back to Richmond, going north on Hwy 522 and then east on Hwy 6.  The Fall color is becoming more vibrant, and it looks like the next two to three weeks will be quite a show.  

Zach

Echo Lake Elementary School Visit

I went out to Echo Lake Elementary School today to talk to the 4th grade students about weather. The "Home of the Dolphins" is celebrating it's 10th year of existence this year, and the students gave me one of their commemorative t-shirts as a gift. Echo Lake is located in Henrico County, just west of Staples Mill Road and south of I-295. I'll be at a school again on Wednesday, this time in Powhatan County.



Zach

We Need More Rain!

You may have seen the stories from our morning news, but city leaders are thinking about mandating voluntary water restrictions to the area. Even though we saw some rain last Friday, things have been very dry for the past 30 days. You can see on the map below - most areas across Virginia are 1.5 to 3" below normal.



Interestingly we are not officially in drought conditions yet. In fact we are not even close.



However, if you check out the stream flow across the region, most rivers and streams are flowing below normal...including the James (orange/red dots are below normal).



This is a situation that we will continue to watch very closely. Luckily, the chances for rain are looking pretty good for Saturday!