Barometric Pressure Forecast for Short Pump, Virginia
Barometric pressure forecast for Short Pump, Virginia — on the Piedmont in western Henrico County, above the Fall Line at Richmond. See current barometric pressure and what it means for weather-sensitive people.
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Pressure and weather in Short Pump
Short Pump sits at about 250 feet on the rolling Virginia Piedmont, west of Richmond and a little above the Fall Line where the hard rock of the uplands gives way to the coastal plain. Its signature weather pattern is cold air damming, the mid-Atlantic wedge. When high pressure sits over New England and a southerly flow develops aloft, a shallow layer of cold air becomes trapped against the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge and spreads south along the Piedmont, producing days of grey overcast, drizzle, raw temperatures in the thirties and a barometer that rises slowly rather than falling. Damming events are strongly associated with prolonged symptoms precisely because they persist rather than pass, and they are notoriously hard to forecast. The rest of the year brings three other drivers: coastal lows and nor'easters tracking offshore with falls of eighteen to twenty-eight hPa and the region's heaviest snow when the track is right, the remnants of tropical systems moving inland from the Carolinas in late summer, and afternoon thunderstorms in July and August that often initiate over the Blue Ridge and arrive here in the early evening already organised.
What this means for you
Damming holds the pattern steady for days rather than moving it through, so the exposure is duration rather than rate of change. A barometric pressure forecast that shows little movement can still describe a difficult week here.