Blog: What to expect overnight and into the weekend from Ian

Posted: Sep 30, 2022 / 06:11 PM EDT

Updated: Oct 1, 2022 / 12:06 AM EDT

Ian made landfall in South Carolina as a Category 1 Hurricane around 2:05pm this afternoon near Georgetown, SC.

The rain from Ian arrived into Hampton Roads Friday morning and continues to fall Friday evening. We expect to see periods of rain overnight with rain eventually tapering off after midnight. Winds have been gusty, but they’ll decrease late tonight.

Here’s a recap of what we have seen so far and what we expect overnight and into the weekend.

Check out the live satellite radar HERE.

Check the latest weather updates HERE.

TORNADO RISK:

A Tornado Watch remains in effect until 10pm tonight. A few quick, spin up tornadoes could occur as rain bands move through this evening and into the early overnight. These tornadoes often spin up quickly – so make sure you have a way to get weather alerts!

The WAVY Weather App is a great app to have because it uses the GPS in your phone to send you alerts. It’ll also help to alert you overnight if you’re sleeping. Just remember to not put your phone on Do Not Disturb or Silent Mode as the alert may not get through!

WINDS:

We have seen winds through the day gusting to 45-55 across Hampton Roads. A few trees have fallen in spots and there have been scattered power outages. Below are some of the highest wind gusts.

46 mph- Suffolk

48 mph – Norfolk Airport

48 mph – Naval Station Norfolk

53 mph – Fort Monroe

55 mph – Portsmouth

Winds will decrease slowly overnight, but we will continue to see some gusts of 35-50 through the early overnight until about 3-4 a.m. High Wind Warnings are in effect until 4 Saturday morning. Winds will taper off as we go into Saturday, with a warmer wind out of the SW around 5-10 mph. Minimal wind on Saturday, but breezy conditions return late Sunday- but winds should not be as strong as today.

TIDAL FLOODING:

We had a round of tidal flooding today around midday, with Sewell’s Point’s tides coming in at 5.46 ft which is in the moderate flood category. Overnight, we expect to see a high tide once again that comes in just below this morning’s high tide -at 5.2ft. That’s in the minor to near moderate flood stage. Some spots will reach moderate flood stage – like the Jamestown Ferry and the Lynnhaven Inlet.

If you live in a flood-prone area, I’d highly recommend you move your car and don’t park it in a flood zone overnight. Many cities have opened parking garages so you can put your car in one of those and keep it out of the flood waters. With the nighttime, it will also be harder to see any flood waters on the road.

Saturday afternoon’s high tide is expected to be lower – with tides coming in around 4.8 to 5ft.

Note on the graphic below that the tides increase once again next week. That’s because an area of low pressure may develop off the coast. We will keep an eye on that over the weekend, but know that we may have to deal with tidal flooding again next Monday and Tuesday!

RAIN:

Rainfall amounts so far have been in the 2-3″ range across much of the Southside and NE NC.

*NOTE: The sensor in Suffolk is not reporting an accurate number*

The rain will taper off overnight heading into Saturday morning. Saturday morning, expect to wake up to a few spotty showers with partly cloudy skies.

While the rain has caused some issues, this rain is actually pretty helpful to our drought situation! I’m interested to see what the newest drought monitor looks like when it is released next Thursday. We could see some changes, hopefully for the better!