As the remnants of Post-Tropical Cyclone Zeta rolled into Hampton Roads, the storm’s winds knocked out power to thousands of Dominion customers Thursday.
As of 2 p.m., the storm was 45 miles south-southeast of Charlottesville and 50 miles west-northwest of Richmond. Its maximum sustained winds were 50 mph and it was moving east-northeast at 53 mph, according to the weather service.
Just before 3 p.m., about 14,000, almost all in Virginia Beach, had lost electricity, according to Dominion’s online outage map.
By 3:30 p.m., that number was down to about 10,000, then slowly decreased until it reached 565 around 6:30 p.m.
The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory from noon to 8 p.m., and meteorologist Mike Rusnak with the National Weather Service said residents should expect southwest winds of 25 to 35 mph and gusts of 40 to 50 mph.
The storm will bring gusts upward of 40 mph and should move offshore Thursday evening. That’s when it will intensify, he said.
It will draw colder air from the north.
There will be wind from this system on the front and back sides of the system, he said.
“People just need to keep aware, there will be rapidly changing conditions,” Rusnak said.
Later in the day, meteorologist Eswar Iyer said to expect a cold front with winds ramping up after 4 or 5 a.m. The strong winds will last a good portion of the day on Friday, but won’t be as strong as Thursday.
“Winds are going to temporarily diminish, but you’ve got a chance of showers and even a few thunderstorms tonight,” Iyer said.
Iyer said the weather service has had several reports of downed trees Thursday.
“There is a marginal risk for severe weather over southern Virginia,” Iyer said. “Main threats would be localized damaging wind gusts and that could result in downed trees.”
Robyn Sidersky, 757-222-5117, robyn.sidersky@pilotonline.com
Saleen Martin, 757-446-2027, saleen.martin@pilotonline.com
