WINTER STORM WATCHES IN EFFECT FOR PARTS OF THE AREA... Today... Some filtered sun or even breaks of sun will be seen today but with reduced sunshine compared to the past couple of days, temperatures will only climb into the upper 40s. Tonight... Two disturbances marching towards the Carolinas will bring us chances for Winter weather. The first disturbance is around the Mississippi River Valley at this time and will continue to move towards the Southeast then turn up the I-85 corridor through Atlanta tonight. A shield of precipitation is expected to develop each hour of the night to our southwest and slowly advance northeast. With very cold, dry dew point temperatures in place, initial bands of precipitation will evaporate before reaching the ground. This will cause the air temperature to cool towards the dew point, ultimately putting much of the area below freezing by daybreak Thursday. So, expect late arriving (4am to 7am) snow, sleet, freezing rain and just rain as the system advances. Thursday... Widespread precipitation will be ongoing most of the day with a wedge of sub-freezing temperatures along the I-85 corridor and points west for most of the morning into midday. This will support the wintry mix but by afternoon, temperatures should struggle into the mid to upper 30s in the metro area changing all precipitation to cold rain. However, I-40 to the Virginia border will hover around the mid 30s at best for highs allowing pockets of freezing rain to persist into the mid-afternoon timeframe. Some accumulations will be possible, Keep an eye on... The second disturbance which arrives by Friday afternoon. This feature is currently over British Columbia to Alberta Canada and will dive into the U.S. over the next couple of days. It will be a stronger feature than our current weather maker and data guidance on this strong upper low is still uncertain. Some data sources indicate a more southern track and should this occur, a possible Winter Storm of Snow could be in the forecast for North Carolina to Virginia. The only thing that is certain with this system that heavy snow squalls will accompany it through the North Carolina mountains and even some snow can be expected into the foothills from late Friday through Saturday. |
