Upper 60's Tues; Light Snow Wed Night
Good afternoon folks! Rainfall totals from this current round of rain will not be as high as we mentioned on Saturday when we called for a one inch region wide total and 2" for the high end. Now we are looking at 1 - 1.5" on the high end for the same locations (Nantahala Mountains, Snowbird Mountains, and Southern Highlands Plateau), with a half inch or so for the rest of SW NC; Haywood county picking up the least amount.
Looking ahead into Tuesday and the rest of the work and school week, we expect showers to wind down Tuesday morning as the cold front slowly marches across the region, stopping just south of the area. Sunshine will be delayed to the afternoon hours and winds out of the southwest will ramp up across the region, gusting to 30 - 40mph across the higher elevations above 4500'. Rainfall and clearing skies aside, the most notable feature for tomorrow will be the afternoon temps as they soar to the low 50's - upper 60's depending upon elevation! This is roughly 13 - 15 degrees above normal for late January but we'll take the spring like temps after a day of rain. Temps settle into the upper 30's - mid 40's overnight into Wednesday under partly cloudy - mostly clear skies.
Clouds will fill back in Wednesday morning ahead of our next rainmaker which is scheduled to begin sometime around midday with scattered showers moving into the region. Precip becomes widespread for an hour or two during the mid - late afternoon timeframe and then slowly winds down throughout the night and into Thursday morning. Temps hold to the upper 40's - upper 50's Wednesday afternoon but during the overnight hours colder air will move into the region, just as precip is beginning to wane but not before its all gone and this will allow a transition to occur from rain to snow. As of this morning it looks like the highest elevations above 5000' may pick up two to three inches of wet snow and although the column cools to allow snow to fall in the valleys by sunrise, it looks like a dusting at most is all we can hope for across the lower elevations. Overnight lows dip into the low - upper 20's by sunrise on Thursday.
As the low pressure system departs to the east, a brief NW flow snow event will develop just before sunrise on Thursday, ending sometime before midday and this will keep light snow along the TN line till noon. Elsewhere across SW NC we will experience clearing skies, breezy conditions with NW winds around 15 - 25mph, and temps only making it to the upper 20's above 4000', warming to the low 40's in the valleys. Clear skies Thursday night bring temps down into the upper teens - mid 20's across the region.
Friday into Saturday should be dry and sunny, however there is a slight chance clouds build before sunset on Saturday as moisture builds across the region ahead of our next rain/snow event on Sunday. Temps warm a degree or two with each passing day, hitting the upper 30's - low 50's by Saturday afternoon.
We'll stop here and circle back on Wednesday with more detail on the late weekend rain/snow event, which at this time looks to be a light event. Enjoy the warm weather Tuesday!