Weekend Cooperates; Slightly Warmer
Good afternoon folks! Quite a bit of rain has fallen since Wednesday morning, with a report of 5" along the escarpment out of Rosman and a whopping 5.46" in Cullowhee from a heavy downpour. Elsewhere across SW NC rainfall totals are in the 1 - 2" range for a good portion of the region, with several stations closing in on 3" across the Southern Highlands Plateau. We'll pick up more rain this evening but the widespread coverage should scale back beginning Saturday, with a round of rain likely Saturday night and another step down in coverage on Sunday. The upper level trough that has been feeding moisture into the region will weaken and lift out of the area this weekend, followed by a fairly flat flow across the Southeast with a ridge to our west and high off the coast to our east. This translates into a return of more sun than clouds, isolated to scattered coverage and warmer temps; a pretty typical late August setup. All eyes are on the two developing tropical systems entering the Gulf of Mexico and although nothing is set in stone at this point, it seems we'll see a return of muggy conditions, cloudy skies, and increased rain chances sometime Thur/Fri of next week.
The weekend looks cooperative considering we are slowly wrapping up a healthy round of rain this evening. We expect scattered coverage Saturday afternoon and once again overnight, scaling back to isolated shower and thunderstorm coverage by Sunday. We'll experience a mix of sun and clouds on Saturday, capping temps to the upper 60's - upper 70's and we recommend squeezing in your outdoor activities before the early afternoon hours to avoid any rain. Sunday will push temps to 80°F across the valleys and it seems there will be more sun than clouds, but for now we are going with partly cloudy skies and isolated showers after 3pm. Overnight lows dip into the upper 50's - low 60's each night, with a round of rain moving through Saturday night, while only partly cloudy skies sit overhead Sunday night.
Monday and Tuesday keep the dry-ish setup going with mostly sunny - partly cloudy skies, highs in the low 80's Monday and mid 80's Tuesday, alongside isolated thunderstorm chances each afternoon. We'll stop here and circle back on Sunday with a slightly more detailed look at next week.