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Mountains do get winds, and today is one of those days. However in the summer, they are often very welcome.
Roanoke current temperature 25F
I've been looking at the temps along the Blue Ridge in VA in winter and summer and unfort it sometimes gets the worst of both...colder than PA yet still hot in summer.
I've been looking at the temps along the Blue Ridge in VA in winter and summer and unfort it sometimes gets the worst of both...colder than PA yet still hot in summer.
If you live on the mountains around Roanoke it is cooler in the summer. The mountain slopes often have cooling evening breezes. Those same breezes often keep the frost away longer.
Before the deer got so pesky, we often got tomatoes until mid-November while the people in the valley below would get frost a month earlier.
Roanoke is southwest Virginia so the yards are often mowed into the first week of December and the grass gets green by the second or third week of March.
Springs and falls are magnificent. Higher up into the Virginia mountains, places like Floyd never get as hot as the valleys.
Also cold weather never really lasts very long. While it was 10F this morning, that is unusually cold for Roanoke. Tomorrow it will be 40 and the next day 50F.
The Carolina coast never got below freezing last night.
We have also lived in Mt. Airy, NC which is at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. When we were teenagers, we would drive fifteen minutes and watch the temperatures drop ten to fifteen degrees.
I can remember one November when I left Roanoke on the way to a football game in State College. I had shorts on because it was so nice in Roanoke. By the time we got to State College, there was sleet and freezing rain.
I think the biggest difference is that most of Pennsylvania except the southern most part and the part closest to the coast is often covered with snow as it is now.
It is very rare for Virginia except the very northern part to have snow cover for very long during the winter. Snows often stay in Pennsylvania.
I prefer the beach, but I would not discount along the mountains as a nice place to live if you are trying to escape snow and ice.
Unless you are going to live at elevations over 3,000 feet in Virginia or North Carolina, snow is not going to be something you see hardly at all, and if you are at those elevations you will not see the really hot temperatures.
StuckPA,
The diversity of the NC coast creates a diversity of weather. If anything keep this in mind-The weather from the coastline to a mile or two inland is unique in of itself.
The two greatest influences are wind and water.
During the summer time-The wind blows from a southerly direction, which brings the water temps. onshore and keeps the coast cooler than inland.
During the winter the wind comes from a northerly direction. This helps to bring the heated ground temp to the coast.
Dramatic changes in temps in fall and winter can be directly attributed to wind direction.
Our coast line temps. are also influenced by the effects of the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream is nothing short of a big, deep, flowing warm river. Its' position is not static-It moves.
During the winter we have a very interesting phenom happen. Cold waters from the north flow down and start "pushing" the gulf stream southerly. Sometime around now the Gulf Stream will flow up to around the point of Hatteras and take a hard right heading towards the UK. As we progress on into winter the Gulf Stream will never make it as far north as hatteras.
The warmest inshore waters during the coldest time of the year will be in front of a bunch of uninhabbitted islands! Raleigh Bay-Which is the Bay formed between the points of Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout is the area that these waters will be found.
The Hatteras area will always be the closest NC point to the Gulf Stream. The Crystal Coast area will be the second closest.
The northern (Corolla area) and southern (Wilmington/Southport) NC coastal areas will always be the furthest away from the stream and as such will not be as greatly affected.
One other element about wind I'd like to bring up. The seasonal wind directions are pretty constant. (Northerly in the winter, southerly in the summer). But how that wind affects what part of the NC coast will be different. The inner and outer banks/coastal area is nothing but a composition of east/west/south/north facing beaches.
Example: The inhabbitted beaches of the Crystal Coast-Bogue Banks where Atlantic Beach and Emerald Isle are located-face south. The land mass blocks the northerly wind during the winter time. This lays the waters down and allows for plenty of fishing time inshore!!
But if you turn the corner at Cape Lookout and try to fish off of Core Banks or Portsmouth Island you'd have a completely different story. These beaches face east. The same wind that had fishable seas in front of Bogue Banks could be a supreme hazard off of Core/Portsmouth.
Same day. Same wind-Two dramatically different seas.
I know I have rambled and shot off in several different directions. Weather, wind and sea is a BIG topic for coastal NC. What type of conditions you get will be determined by where you are along our coastline.
Bill
We have also lived in Mt. Airy, NC which is at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. When we were teenagers, we would drive fifteen minutes and watch the temperatures drop ten to fifteen degrees.
That's good,I've always wanted a place like Colorado near here
Here's a great example of winter time coastal weather.
Yesterday morning when I went out on my morning run we had a northerly wind and it was 24 degrees.
This morning I went out on my morning run we had a southerly wind and it was 62 degrees.
I live in Morehead City a couple of hundred yards off the sound. While it was 62 degrees at my house it was only 47 degrees a few miles inland at Havelock.
The National Weather Service predicts it will be 64-66 degrees on Christmas Day here. But in keeping in the spirit on weather diversity here along the coast on Christmas day of 1989 we had over a foot of snow!!
How does one run when it is 24 degrees!? yikes! Yes, we experienced the same phenomenon here across the sound from Topsail Island....yesterday 23 and this a.m. at same time 63 degrees! I'm just bummed it browned my beautiful camellias that were abundantly blooming, but on the happy side, there are plenty of buds that I hope won't be affected, and I cut many to decorate the church for Christmas Eve before the temps got to freezing! And looking forward to those warm temps tomorrow - will be more fun for those grandkids up in Cape Carteret when we visit there! But...it would've been fun to build a snowman if that were where we lived and the ground was covered!
Today (Dec. 31) is another perfect example of how the immediate coast has weather all unto intself.
Havelock (A few miles off the coast)-reports a SW wind at 8 mph. It's blowin' 25 (and gusty) here on the water.
Bill
And Happy New Year to you - looks like a great morning for another one of those QUICK runs, but hasn't it been beautiful in between Christmas and the New Year?! I had to go into Wilmington the past couple of days and how nice to not even put on a jacket...a sweater and vest were ample...today is another story, however...hope the winds die down soon....but hoping they are blowing in a good and peaceful New Year!
We went over to the beach at Emerald Isle yesterday around noon. It was 61F, and a long sleeved tee shirt was enough for warmth. Later we joined lots of other folks enjoying the mild weather on the Croatan Tideland trails.
By 3:30 PM the winds were starting to increase, but it was still nice out. The temperatures was down to 35F at midnight. Our low on the White Oak was 27.4F but it is already back up to 33F at 9:00 AM this morning.
That's cold for this area, but I just checked and my friend in New Jersey is still stuck at 19F, State College, PA is at 17F and Boston is at 9F. That is as cold as I ever saw it in Boston during my four years in college there.
Then there are my poor friends in the Canadian Maritimes who are looking at a foot of snow, winds of 35-55 mph, and an official blizzard warning.
Compared to all that the upper forties which we should reach today look pretty good.
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Depends on where you are
