Heavy Rain on Thursday and Friday
Good Morning Folks! With heavy rain on the way for Thursday and Friday, followed by several rounds of light - moderate rainfall Sunday through Tuesday, we highly encourage everyone to get outside today as it will be on the drier days over the next five days. The heavy rain event should unfold sometime Thursday morning and ramp up in both intensities and coverage Thursday night into Friday morning. Showers and even thunderstorms pass overhead Friday with a brief dry spell Saturday before another round of rain moves through Sunday. Temps all the while will be above freezing, translating to only rain over the next several days with a possible wet snowfall Sunday night for elevations above 6000'.
Sunshine today will bring temps to the low 40's along the ridgelines and mid 50's for the valleys, with a light southeasterly wind throughout the afternoon. Clouds slowly increase throughout the night and cap temps to the mid - upper 30's across the region, with no precip expected till later in the morning on Thursday.
Thursday and Friday will be our wettest days over the next five days, however shower chances linger well into next week. Shower coverage and intensities pick up as the day moves along Thursday, becoming widespread by the mid - late afternoon hours. As southwesterly flow takes over late in the day Thursday and ramps up overnight into Friday, we can expect rainfall totals to hit the 2 - 3" mark by sunrise Friday. Temps Thursday will be held back to the upper 40's for most of SW NC, with overnight lows only a degree or two cooler than the afternoon high (mid - upper 40's). Friday offers up continuing showers, however instability enters the region and thunderstorms develop during the morning hours, scaling back in coverage (slowly) as the afternoon moves along. Another 1 - 2" is likely during the day on Friday and for those who experience thunderstorms, perhaps another inch is likely on top of the region wide average. Overall, all of SW NC will pick up 3" of rain with many sites coming close to the 5" mark, especially for folks who live near or along the SC state line. One silver lining to all of this rain will be the warmer temps Friday, pushing into the mid 50's - low 60's depending upon elevation, dropping to the low - mid 40's Friday night (clearing skies late).
Dry air moves in early Saturday as the overall flow becomes westerly, after the front crosses the region. This will allow for partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies and temps in the upper 40's - upper 50's, however clouds fill back in that night and showers are expected Sunday. The next rain event will not be a prolonged event but more of a round of showers, with this setup continuing into next week. This portion of the forecast is not set in stone as the front may meander a bit, moving the positioning of the region wide rain around the Southeast from day to day. With this in mind, please check back in as we near the end of the upcoming weekend.
Our next forecast discussion will come out Friday morning. Stay dry everyone!