Forecast Last Updated at Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 12:28PM
Short-term Warmth, Weekend Chill
After a chilly start in some areas this morning, we'll be flirting with record highs this afternoon. Valley temperatures will be quite cool again tonight. Wednesday will be similar to today. A front will arrive Thursday night; we can expect increasing clouds Thursday and light rain will be possible by late Thursday night. Friday will be cloudy and cooler with rain. This weekend much cooler air will arrive--sweaters and jackets will be needed.
I'm getting lots of questions about fall color. Mast General Store maintains a weekly fall color report for Western North Carolina in our Outdoor Living Section.
Mid-October... thoughts to turn toward the coming winter. Acorns, hornets' nests, woolly worms, etc.--all the "sign readers" are talking a harsh, cold winter. We'll release the RaysWeather.Com 2008-2009 Winter Fearless Forecast Saturday.
The winning photos in the 2009 RWC Calendar Contest have been named. Thanks to everyone for 870 entries this year. Calendars should be available for sale by October 20.
Tuesday Hi: 75 Lo: 45  Mostly clear; Well above average temps for mid-October except for cool in valleys at night; Light west wind  |
Wednesday Hi: 76 Lo: 49 Scattered clouds; Continued warm; Light west wind |
Thursday Hi: 71 Lo: 52 Increasing clouds; Not as warm; Chance of rain late at night; NW wind 5-15 mph |
Friday Hi: 59 Lo: 40 Cloudy; Occasional rain; Cooler |
Saturday Hi: 52 Lo: 33 Morning clouds, some afternoon breaks; Chilliest of the season so far; Brisk NW wind |
Further Out
Sunday - Scattered clouds; Still cool; High in the upper 50s; Low in the lower 30s
Monday - Mostly sunny; Not as cool; High in the upper 50s; Low in the upper 30s
Forecast Discussion
High pressure is overhead and warmer air is flowing in from our southwest. Temperatures today will be 10°-15° warmer than normal and near record highs. Wednesday will be similar. In spite of the daytime warmth, valleys will be chilly again tonight; mountaintops will be 20° warmer than the valleys.
Clouds will increase Thursday as a front approaches from the northwest. Light rain will be possible late Thursday night, and occasional rain will be the order of the day Friday as an area of low pressure moves through the Southeast along the front. Light rain may last into Friday night. Temperatures Thursday will be seasonally warm but not as warm as today and Wednesday. The front will move across our area late Thursday night or Friday morning resulting in cooler weather for Friday.
The chilliest air of the season so far is poised to overtake the Southern Appalachians this weekend. Saturday's highs will be 20°-25° cooler than today's highs. Clouds will be slow to decrease Saturday with a brisk NW wind (as a coastal low forms near Hatteras). Sunday will have more sun but remain on the cool side of normal. Frost and freezing temperatures will be possible Saturday and Sunday night--maybe enough to end the growing season. Ahhh... "no November mowing" is a nice thought.
Monday looks mostly clear with moderating temperatures (but still below normal).
The Tropical Atlantic continues to show potential. Tropical Depression Nana is in the eastern Atlantic that will fade to just a remnant low today. "Nana, Nana, Hey hey, Goodbye!". What was Tropical Depression 15 is now Tropical Storm Omar. Omar is located about 350 miles SSW of San Juan, Puerto Rico and is expected to push just east of Puerto Rico and impact the Virigin Islands, possibly as a hurricane on Thursday. Last but not least, Tropical Depression 16 is in the southwestern Caribbean just of the Nicaraguan and Honduras coastlines. It appears to be strengthening as well and is likely to be named before making landfall ('Paloma' is the next name in the list).
Announcements
RaysWeather.Com continues to grow. We are an "information age" company using the web to broadcast the message but also as a tool for producing the message. RaysWeather.Com (what we call RWC) has evolved from "Ray's hobby in Beautiful Downtown Rutherwood" in 1999 to the most widely read media outlet in NW NC reaching 150,000 to 200,000 people per month and covering the weather from NC/VA line to Asheville and Wolf Laurel. We will continue to grow geographically as well--Roaring Gap and Waynesville were recently added; Black Mountain will be up and running very soon. The heart of the growth is good data, "local flavor", and THE most reliable forecast.
We recently added our 6th forecaster to the best forecast team ever assembled for this region. It's time for us to introduce "the crew"...
- Dr. Ray Russell is a Computer Science professor at Appalachian State University. His PhD is in Computer Science from Georgia Tech (1989); weather has been a long-time passion. He started posting a "snow forecast" on the university website back in the mid 1990's; this evolved into RaysWeather.Com in 2000. Ray lives in Boone and has taught at Appalachian State since 1991.
- Eric Anderson (RWC's Chief Meteorologist) received his degree in meteorology from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and is a 15-year veteran of NOAA with experience in forecasting, observation and analysis. A native of western North Carolina, Eric's former tenure in the National Weather Service gave him the opportunity to forecast for areas of the Mid-Atlantic region. His professional interests include upslope flow snow events in the southern Appalachians, as well as cold air damming in the Carolinas.
- Alan Simons, born in Fayetteville NC, has a Bachelor of Science in meteorology and almost 20 years of professional experience that includes forecasting for newspapers, websites, radio, aviation, and the military. He first became interested in weather in North Carolina, and RWC takes him back home after a variety of duty stations, from New York to Hawaii. Alan's been with the RWC team since 2003.
- Tim Kirby joined Ray's Weather Center in October 2004 and lives in his hometown of Fries, VA (pronounced Freeze). The folks from this small Grayson County town say "it's freeze in winter and fries in summer". He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from NC State University. While at NC State, he was president of the NCSU Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society. Before joining RWC, Tim worked for the National Weather Service for ten years in Raleigh, Chattanooga and Morristown, Tennessee. Tim has always loved the challenge of forecasting and owes his dedication to a childhood fascination of snow (no school!).
- Harold Alston is a N.C. native with Bachelor of Science degrees from both App State (Broadcast Communications) and UNC-Asheville (Meteorology). He has 30 years experience tracking and forecasting NC weather including 15 years experience for media outlets. Nailing down Appalachian wedges & wintry possibilities are his areas of expertise with a lifetime of N.C. weather experiences to reference.
- Jeff Cox, a native of Asheville, is the latest addition to the RWC team. He earned a Bachelor of Sciences in Atmospheric Sciences from UNC-Asheville. At UNC-A, he was the lead forecaster for the school's Weather Forecast Line, campus Radio Station, "The Blue Echo" and the campus newspaper, "The Blue Banner." Jeff has experience as a meteorologist in both television and radio. He spent over 2 years in Macon, GA, as the chief meteorologist at WGXA FOX-24. He also has experience as a radio broadcast meteorologist for The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Georgia.
12/31/1969 7:00 pm