A Wet Friday; Dry by Sunday

Good morning folks! We've had a few showers develop across the region the past few days but nothing close to regionwide coverage and today may finally break that stretch. We expect a handful of showers and thunderstorms to develop this afternoon (Thursday) and fizzle out this evening, with a regionwide rain event occurring Friday into Saturday. Most of SW NC will pick up a half inch of rain Friday into Saturday, which is a slight increase from our previous discussion and just enough to keep any drought from popping up here in SW NC; some spots will pick up an inch of rain. Rainfall totals are running a touch below normal for late spring but our typical summertime setup of afternoon pop up thunderstorms will return next week. A front crosses the region on Friday and high pressure takes over late Saturday into Sunday, setting the stage for a dry end to the weekend, however high clouds may spoil a mostly sunny day on Sunday. Fair weather will continue into Monday and sun coverage will increase as the weak high pressure to our northeast breaks down into early next week. At the same time, overall flow will begin to shift out of the southwest by Monday/Tuesday and this will be our ticket to a typical summertime setup, with afternoon pop ups in the forecast starting Wednesday, possibly as early as Tuesday. Temps all the while will remain above average today and Friday and then cooldown this weekend to the 70's with a return to the low 80's by early next week.

We'll start out the timeline on Friday and scattered light showers are likely to start out the day but coverage really ramps up as we move through the morning hours, becoming widespread by the early - mid afternoon hours. We'll see coverage scale back as we enter the evening hours but isolated showers will linger throughout the night and into Saturday morning. Most of SW NC will pick up a half inch of rain and several sites closer to the GA and TN lines will come close to an inch, so all in all this will be a healthy event after this recent dry spell. Temps Friday will unfortunately still climb to the low 80's across the valleys, with overnight lows in the low - mid 50's as cooler air filters in behind the frontal passage.

Isolated showers will pepper the region till roughly noon on Saturday and we'll see high and mid level clouds linger the rest of the day, with temps only climbing to the upper 50's above 5000' and mid 70's across the lower elevations. Overnight temps dip to the low - upper 40's Saturday night under partly - mostly cloudy skies, with isolated showers possible along the highest ridgelines.

Sunday into Tuesday features a gradual increase in sunshine, with high clouds on Sunday as the Great Balsams combat a weak wedge, giving way to mostly sunny skies for Monday and Tuesday. Temps will warm to the mid - upper 70's on Sunday across the lower elevations, flirting with 80°F early next week but all the while dewpoints will be low, especially on Sunday, making for a pleasant end to the weekend. Overnight lows settle into the mid 40's - mid 50's each night, depending upon elevation.

We'll stop here and circle back on Saturday with recent rainfall totals and an outlook for the middle of next week, which looks promising (a return to normal pop up showers). ENJOY!