Showers Mon/Tues; Dry by Wednesday
Good afternoon folks! Our previous forecast of a dry and mostly sunny start to the work and school week evaporated over the weekend as the overall setup has shifted just enough to keep shower chances alive for both Monday and Tuesday. It seems we'll deal with more clouds than sun on Monday, alongside scattered showers and thunderstorms, followed by a slow decline in both cloud cover and shower coverage on Tuesday. This sets up Wednesday to possibly be the driest day of the week, sandwiched in between a declining upper level ridge to our southeast and a fairly strong high pressure system off the Southeast coast. Where things go beyond Wednesday is not very clear as we wait and see how Tropical Cyclone Laura moves across land, possibly enhancing a normal shower setup for Thur - Sat or passing us to the north all together.
Monday and Tuesday will not be a washout or even soggy, but we will revert back to shower coverage similar to what we experienced this past Saturday, where showers popped up just about anywhere and migrated across SW NC. Coverage should bring rain to roughly 2/3 of the region Monday and perhaps 1/2 of SW NC on Tuesday, with much more cloud cover on Monday compared to Tuesday; mostly cloudy to partly sunny/partly cloudy skies. Temps will respond to the increase in cloud cover, only making it to the mid 60's - upper 70's on Monday, warming slightly to the low 80's across the valleys on Tuesday; overnight lows dip into the upper 50's - mid 60's each night.
Wednesday looks promising with a mixed bag of clouds and sun and a noticeable change in humidity levels; nothing to write home about but just enough of a drop to really enjoy the light breeze out of the west. Temps will capitalize on the increase in sunshine and push to the low 70's above 5500', warming to the mid 80's across the lower elevations. Overnight lows settle into the low - mid 60's as cloud cover begins to fill back with the uptick in moisture from a developing upper level trough out of the northwest.
We'll stop here and only mention the latter half of the week does not look dry and sunny with a decent chance for conditions similar to Monday, possibly as wet as last Friday if Tropical Cyclone Laura is able to reach our neck of the woods. We''ll circle back on Tuesday.