Forecast Last Updated at Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 7:43PM

More Clouds & Increasing Rain Chances

There was quite a range of high temperatures this afternoon...from 48 degrees at the top of Sugar Mountain to 71 at Watauga Lake (where there was more sun today). A front approaching from the west with an upper level low in the Southeast will produce clouds Wednesday through much of Friday. We can expect rain developing Wednesday, a rainy Wednesday night, occasional rain Thursday, and lingering light showers even into Friday. Temperatures with rain and clouds around will be on the cool side of normal.

OctoberFest is this weekend at Sugar Mountain Resort; here is our Hour-by-Hour Forecast for the event.

The winning photos in the 2009 RWC Calendar Contest have been named. Thanks to everyone for 870 entries this year. Calendars should be available for sale by October 20.

Tuesday Hi: 59 Lo: 50 Plenty of clouds; SSE wind 5-15 mph, gusty overnight in higher elevations

Wednesday Hi: 59 Lo: 54 Cloudy; Rain developing & cool; A rainy night; South wind 5-15 mph becoming light at night

Thursday Hi: 61 Lo: 55 Cloudy; Occasional rain; SE wind 5-10 mph

Friday Hi: 64 Lo: 54 Overcast; Chance of showers during the day

Saturday Hi: 66 Lo: 52 Morning clouds; Maybe some AM drizzle; Some afternoon sun

Further Out

Sunday - Mostly to partly cloudy; Pleasant temperatures; High in the upper 60s; Low in the lower 50s
Monday - Scattered clouds; Pleasant; High in the mid 60s; Low in the lower 50s

Forecast Discussion

The weather map will be rather complicated in the Southeast the next several days. First, a backdoor front moved through Monday night, and high pressure wedged south today. The result was clouds and cooler temperatures.

A front will approach Wednesday from the west with a disturbance moving into the Southeast. A moist, southerly fetch will result in rain beginning during the day Wednesday. Temperatures will remain relatively cool Wednesday.

We still have lots of questions about how quickly the disturbance will move across the Southeast--very slowly is the thinking right now. Thursday will have occasional rain. By Friday, rain amounts will diminish significantly; however, we may be dealing with lingering light rain for a good part of the day. Even Saturday, we'll start with lots of clouds and maybe some drizzle. For the period Wednesday through Saturday morning, 1"+ rain totals will be common (and much needed).

By Sunday, the rain should be to our east leaving us with mostly to partly cloudy skies and pleasant weather. Monday has even fewer clouds. Temperatures will be warmer Sunday and Monday, but high pressure wedging down the Appalachians will keep a lid on highs.

Tropical Storm Marco developed in the southern Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche Monday afternoon and moved into central Mexico today.

Announcements

RaysWeather.Com continues to grow. We are an "information age" company using the web to broadcast the message but also as a tool for producing the message. RaysWeather.Com (what we call RWC) has evolved from "Ray's hobby in Beautiful Downtown Rutherwood" in 1999 to the most widely read media outlet in NW NC reaching 150,000 to 200,000 people per month and covering the weather from NC/VA line to Asheville and Wolf Laurel. We will continue to grow geographically as well--Roaring Gap and Waynesville were recently added; Black Mountain will be up and running very soon. The heart of the growth is good data, "local flavor", and THE most reliable forecast.

We recently added our 6th forecaster to the best forecast team ever assembled for this region. It's time for us to introduce "the crew"...

• Dr. Ray Russell is a Computer Science professor at Appalachian State University. His PhD is in Computer Science from Georgia Tech (1989); weather has been a long-time passion. He started posting a "snow forecast" on the university website back in the mid 1990's; this evolved into RaysWeather.Com in 2000. Ray lives in Boone and has taught at Appalachian State since 1991.
• Eric Anderson (RWC's Chief Meteorologist) received his degree in meteorology from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and is a 15-year veteran of NOAA with experience in forecasting, observation and analysis. A native of western North Carolina, Eric's former tenure in the National Weather Service gave him the opportunity to forecast for areas of the Mid-Atlantic region. His professional interests include upslope flow snow events in the southern Appalachians, as well as cold air damming in the Carolinas.
• Alan Simons, born in Fayetteville NC, has a Bachelor of Science in meteorology and almost 20 years of professional experience that includes forecasting for newspapers, websites, radio, aviation, and the military. He first became interested in weather in North Carolina, and RWC takes him back home after a variety of duty stations, from New York to Hawaii. Alan's been with the RWC team since 2003.
• Tim Kirby joined Ray's Weather Center in October 2004 and lives in his hometown of Fries, VA (pronounced Freeze). The folks from this small Grayson County town say "it's freeze in winter and fries in summer". He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from NC State University. While at NC State, he was president of the NCSU Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society. Before joining RWC, Tim worked for the National Weather Service for ten years in Raleigh, Chattanooga and Morristown, Tennessee. Tim has always loved the challenge of forecasting and owes his dedication to a childhood fascination of snow (no school!).
• Harold Alston is a N.C. native with Bachelor of Science degrees from both App State (Broadcast Communications) and UNC-Asheville (Meteorology). He has 30 years experience tracking and forecasting NC weather including 15 years experience for media outlets. Nailing down Appalachian wedges & wintry possibilities are his areas of expertise with a lifetime of N.C. weather experiences to reference.
• Jeff Cox, a native of Asheville, is the latest addition to the RWC team. He earned a Bachelor of Sciences in Atmospheric Sciences from UNC-Asheville. At UNC-A, he was the lead forecaster for the school's Weather Forecast Line, campus Radio Station, "The Blue Echo" and the campus newspaper, "The Blue Banner." Jeff has experience as a meteorologist in both television and radio. He spent over 2 years in Macon, GA, as the chief meteorologist at WGXA FOX-24. He also has experience as a radio broadcast meteorologist for The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Georgia.