Forecast Last Updated at Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 7:53PM

The Perfect Storm? Warmer Friday

The remnants of Fay was just about the perfect storm for us. It did not affect a weekend, but delivered all the rain our streams and rivers could hold without producing any significant flooding in the area. Three day rain totals are impressive: 9.02" at Roaring Gap, 8.37" at Laurelmor, 4.25" in Boone, 4.63" in Warrensville, 5.63" at Sugar Mtn, 4.33" in Burnsville, and 1.80" at Cherokee Cove. For most of the region, the rain deficit for 2008 was cut in half. A shower will remain possible early this evening with more clouds and areas of fog for the overnight. Friday will turn drier but still have the slight chance of an afternoon thundershower. A front moves through Saturday bringing scattered PM thundershowers. Drier weather comes early next week.

Voting in the 2009 Ray's Weather Center Calendar Photo Contest ended August 20. Winners will be announced by September 1.

Thursday Hi: 72 Lo: 60 Clouds persist; Slight chance for a shower; Areas of fog/drizzle overnight; Light northerly wind

Friday Hi: 78 Lo: 61 Lots of clouds; A bit warmer; Slight chance of a PM t-shower; Light east wind

Saturday Hi: 79 Lo: 61 Mostly cloudy; Scattered PM t-showers; SE wind 5-10 mph becoming light at night

Sunday Hi: 77 Lo: 58 Partly cloudy; Slight chance of a PM t-shower

Monday Hi: 77 Lo: 58 Scattered clouds; Pleasant

Further Out

Tuesday - More sun than clouds; Pleasant; High in the upper 70s; Low in the upper 50s
Wednesday - Mostly clear; Continued nice weather; High in the upper 70s; Low in the upper 50s

Forecast Discussion

The moisture conveyor belt from the south that produced all the rain is gradually waning. Expect lots of clouds tonight and early Friday with areas of drizzle and fog tonight and even a slight chance for a shower. The slow drying process will continue Friday. We'll have lots of clouds but see more sun than today. An afternoon shower or thundershower cannot be ruled out with lots of humidity remaining across our area.

Saturday a weak front will move through from the northwest increasing the chance for a PM thundershower. Sunday, that front will be to our southeast. Skies will be partly cloudy; an afternoon thundershower will be a slight possibility.

Monday through Wednesday, high pressure will build overhead with drier air finally taking control. We can expect pleasant weather.

In the tropics...Tropical Storm Gustav is moving across Jamaica and will probably weaken some tonight then move through the Cayman Islands by Friday night. Gustav is forecast to regain hurricane strength before reaching the Gulf of Mexico by late in the holiday weekend. It could be a threat to the Texas/Louisiana coast toward next Tuesday or Wednesday. It will likely become a major hurricane within the next few days.

Tropical Storm Hanna formed today NE of the Northern Leeward islands. This storm is expected to move NW over the next 2-3 days and stay well NE of the Bahamas. There is a lot of uncertainty as to where Hanna goes from there but this storm will not affect any land areas through early next week.

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.