Weather Forecasts

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Get the latest weather forecast from the National Weather Service

 

How are forecasts written for WVTF's coverage area?

Contact: Rick Mattioni at (540) 989-8900 or Mattioni@VT.edu

Few elements of radio are more basic to those of us who have the responsibility of programming stations and more important to listeners than the forecasts heard several times an hour on WVTF. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t hear from at least a couple of listeners about our forecasts. Admittedly, our forecasts may be difficult for listeners to comprehend because of the many weather zones that our combined WVTF signal stretches across and because we have to pack a lot of information into a 30-second package. To make it easier to understand how we come up with the forecasts and what our announcers mean when referring to the different zones, we’ve developed what we hope is a helpful and useful tool for our listeners.

 

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WVTF Weather Tutorial

All forecasts begin with the four National Weather Service offices that serve our large coverage area:
 
Baltimore/Washington, actually at Sterling, Virginia, near Dulles Airport, which is responsible for Augusta County, including Staunton and Waynesboro; Albemarle County, including Charlottesville, and the counties of Greene, Madison, Nelson, Orange. We refer to this weather zone on the air as the CHARLOTTESVILLE AREA, STAUNTON AREA, or when warranted, the CHARLOTTESVILLE/STAUNTON area even through it includes more localities than those two cities. This entire weather region is in BLUE on our map below and includes some counties not in the responsibility area for this Weather Service office such as Rockbridge (coverage area in blue).

Charleston , West Virginia which is responsible for Buchanan and Dickenson Counties in Virginia. This weather region is referred to on the air as FAR SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA (coverage area in green). Morristown, Tennessee which is responsible for Lee, Russell, Scott, Washington, and Wise counties as well as the cities of Bristol and Norton. This weather region is also referred to as FAR SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA (coverage area in green).

 

Blacksburg , Virginia is responsible for most of our coverage area. The counties of Alleghany and Bath, and cities of Clifton Forge and Covington (plus Highland County) are announced on air as ALLEGHANY HIGHLANDS (coverage area in yellow)

 

The Roanoke/Salem area and Amherst/Bedford/Lynchburg area is announced as ROANOKE/LYNCHBURG AREA (coverage area in red).

 

The area including Montgomery and Pulaski counties, city of Radford, and west of that including Craig and Giles counties on air as THE NEW RIVER VALLEY and WEST (coverage area in purple).

 

The area including Bland, Carroll, Floyd, Patrick, Grayson, Smyth, Tazewell, Wythe Counties is SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA (coverage area in grey).

 

The area comprised of Halifax, Henry, Pittsylvania Counties and cities of Danville and Martinsville is SOUTHSIDE VIRGINIA (coverage area in pink).

 

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So how do I use all this information when I listen to WVTF forecasts?

We combine several counties into groups so that we have a “Most Places” grouping and one for exceptions as in the example below:

SUNNY MOST PLACES TODAY WITH HIGHS IN THE LOWER 50S. CLOUDY WITH RAIN LIKELY AND HIGHS IN THE LOWER 40S IN THE NEW RIVER VALLEY AND WEST.

That would indicate that all of the areas discussed earlier within WVTF’s coverage signal - with the exception of the NRV and west will experience sunshine and highs around 50 degrees.

 

Some other helpful weather facts:

- We update the forecasts a minimum of four times a day including just before 5:00 AM , around 11:00 AM , around 4:00 PM , around 10:00 PM or as warranted by changing weather conditions. We air flash flood warnings, tornado warnings, and other emergency messages instantly.

- Forecasts are scheduled more often in news programs such as Morning Edition than at any other time. We give the forecast at least five times an hour in Morning Edition; two to three times an hour in music programming, four times an hour in weekday afternoon and early evening news shows, three times an hour on most weekend programming.

- We try to give the dozen or so reporting station temperatures in our listening area at least twice an hour in Morning Edition when listeners need that information the most.

 

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