High Wind Watch - Watauga (North Carolina)

Current Conditions
Aho/Sorrento

Temp: 64.3°F

Forecast Last Updated at Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 2:22PM

A 50/50 Weekend On Tap

Several folks in the RWC forecast area dealt with a few rumbles of thunder Friday night as a quick moving system flew through the region. We'll see drying conditions and mild temperatures today before our next system moves in tonight, which looks to bring widespread showers and thundershowers on Sunday, making for a soggy end to the weekend.

Saturday Hi: 67 Lo: 46 Mostly sunny; NW winds 10-20 mph

Sunday Hi: 50 Lo: 41 Plenty of clouds; Cooler; Rain and t-showers likely in the afternoon; Rain heavy at times; East winds 10-20 mph, shifting west at night with gusts over 30 mph

Monday Hi: 52 Lo: 41 Noticeable lack of sun; Well below average; AM drizzle/mist likely Windy; West winds 20-30 mph with gusts over 40 mph at times

Tuesday Hi: 64 Lo: 45 Sunshine returns; Winds begin to calm; Temperatures begin to warm, but still below average

Wednesday Hi: 67 Lo: 51 Partly cloudy; An afternoon/evening shower or storm is possible.

Further Out

Thursday - Mostly cloudy; Showers and T-Showers likely by the afternoon.; High in the mid 60s; Low in the lower 50s
Friday - A few showers possible in the morning; Clearing by the afternoon; High in the mid 60s; Low in the upper 40s

Forecast Discussion

A quick moving piece of energy in the upper levels of the atmosphere skirted through the RWC forecast area Friday night sparking off a few scattered showers and storms, some of which actually produced a few severe thunderstorm warnings. Fortunately, all of that is now exiting the region and will lead us toward a pretty nice Saturday, with plenty of sunshine expected. Most of us should stay dry today, with the exception of Asheville south and west, where a stray shower or storm is possible this afternoon. However, this quick shot of nice weather will be just that - quick. Sunday's forecast is a totally different ball game!

Beginning tonight, a warm front lifting from the south will bring widespread moisture into the region early Sunday morning. Rain is expected to begin for Asheville and points south in the early morning hours, while rain will hold off until around the noon hour for the HC and FH. Expect a near all day rain event out of this system, with heavy rain at times.

Fortunately, it looks as though the potential for severe weather will be limited to our neighbors to the south. A minimal cold air damming event looks to set up for Sunday, which would provide a bit more stable atmosphere for the RWC forecast area. This really needs to be watched though. Any slight change in this forecast could bring the severe potential back north, but as of this writing, our severe threat on Sunday looks minimal.

The other big story this weekend will be very gusty winds, especially in the HC beginning Saturday night, calming a bit on Sunday, and then increasing again Sunday night and Monday. It isn't out of the question to see occasional gusts in the higher elevations over 40 mph during these times. It's likely that the National Weather Service will issue a wind advisory for these time periods.

And if that's not enough, how about a quick shot of cooler air! We'll have to deal with significantly cooler temperatures on Monday. Along the TN/NC border and in the HC, Monday will absolutely be a raw day with plenty of clouds, a light drizzle/mist and gusty winds. And depending on how low the mercury falls, we might even see a few snowflakes Sunday night into Monday morning along the TN/NC border at the highest elevations!

It's a quickly improving forecast by Tuesday with warming temperatures for the middle of next week before our next cold front moves in by Thursday of next week. Until then, it's going to be an active weekend with plenty of widespread showers expected for Sunday.

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 has just been added; Waynesville, you're next. 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.

So now you know who's behind the forecast. It's not magic--just lots of hard work by many people. In addition to meteorology, keeping RWC going requires office mangement, programming, computer system's administration, ad sales, and graphic design. We'll introduce you to the rest of the team soon.