Slowly Warming Up; Friday Showers?
Good afternoon folks! The NW flow snow event is playing out as expected, with sunshine across our most southern areas and on and off moderate snow showers occurring along the TN line. This event ends tonight and sunshine takes over Tuesday, with fair weather lasting into Thursday, followed by a slight chance for showers late Friday. The weekend looks quiet at this point, at least for Saturday as the models hint at a possible light rain event late Sunday afternoon. This is still very much up in the air at this point, so keep your outdoor weekend plans and even if showers develop, they look to be light and closer to sunset. Temps will go from slightly below normal Tuesday to above normal by Thursday, cooling down to normal levels Friday and Saturday.
Sunshine on Tuesday will push temps to the upper 30's along the ridgelines, while the valleys enjoy temps in the upper 40's, possibly hitting the 50°F mark in Franklin and Bryson City. Winds calm down as the day moves along, but they will pick right back up closer to sunrise on Wednesday, with partly cloudy skies overhead and temps bottoming out to the mid 20's - low 30's.
Wednesday will be windy across the higher elevations above 4500' as gust ramp up to 35 - 40mph, while the valleys deal with a steady breeze around 15mph. Temps make a run at the low 40's - low 50's depending upon elevation under sunny skies and overnight lows will settle into the upper 20's - low 30's. Winds eventually calm down by sunrise Thursday.
Thursday will be the warmest day of the week with temps reaching the upper 50's in the valleys, when normal temps for early December are in the low 50's. The ridgelines will hold to the low - mid 40's after midday and after the sun sets, clouds move in and cap overnight lows to the mid - upper 30's across the region.
Light precip may move in as early as sunrise on Friday and could fall as snow above 4000', but there is nothing to worry about as coverage looks isolated at best and all precip kicks over to rain before midday. Temps return to normal as the afternoon highs reach the low 40's - low 50's across the region, with all precip chances ending by sunset.
Sunny skies are likely Saturday and high clouds move in Sunday, with a slight chance for rain closer to sunset. We'll provide more details about the rain chances for Friday and Sunday in our next discussion, which will come out Wednesday afternoon.