Forecast Last Updated at Monday, October 13, 2008 at 10:46AM

Warm through Wednesday

Skies will remain mostly clear for at least two more days. Temperatures will be progressively warmer today and Tuesday, then continued warm Wednesday (but rather chilly in valleys at night under clear skies and calm winds). We'll be flirting with record highs Tuesday and Wednesday. A front will arrive Thursday night with some rain possible Friday. The biggest news in this forecast is much cooler air coming for the weekend--cold enough to end the growing season for 2008.

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... time for 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 Fearless Forecast for Winter 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.

Monday Hi: 65 Lo: 45 Plenty of sunshine for Columbus Day; Warmer; But chilly in valleys tonight; Light SE wind

Tuesday Hi: 70 Lo: 46 Mostly clear; Well above average temps for mid-October except for cool in valleys at night; Light South wind

Wednesday Hi: 69 Lo: 47 Scattered clouds; Continued warm; Light west wind

Thursday Hi: 64 Lo: 50 More clouds by late-day; Not as warm

Friday Hi: 56 Lo: 40 Cloudy; A period or two of rain possible; Cooler

Further Out

Saturday - A mix of sun and clouds; Chilliest of the season so far; High in the lower 50s; Low in the lower 30s
Sunday - Mostly clear; Still cool; High in the lower 50s; Low in the lower 30s

Forecast Discussion

A strong ridge is taking control of the Eastern US early this week. The weak wedge of high pressure that kept a lid on temperatures will go away today. As a result, temperatures will become much warmer of the next three days. A front will slide into our area Thursday. It will stall just to our south Friday, and then move off the Atlantic Coast Saturday. A fleeting but potent shot of cooler air will arrive in the Southern Appalachians late Friday and Saturday.

The Dailies...
Today through Wednesday will have mostly sunny skies with warmer daytime temperatures. We will be near or just below record highs both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Thursday, we'll have more clouds and temperatures will retreat from near-record levels.
Friday, the front will be just to our south with a trough digging from the northwest. We'll have mostly cloudy skies with the chance of a couple periods of rain.
Saturday looks dry but a brisk NW wind will give us the coolest day of the season thus far.
Sunday will seasonably cool with mostly sunny skies.

While we have been enjoying beautiful weather, the tropical Atlantic has become somewhat more active. Tropical Storm Nana is in the eastern Atlantic. It is a fledgling, little storm that may not survive the next 24 hours and will affect no land mass. So we can go ahead and sing, "Nana, Nana, Hey hey, Goodbye!". Another tropical wave could become a tropical disturbance later today in the Western Caribbean south of Puerto Rico. Omar would be the name if it strengthened further.

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.