Forecast Last Updated at Friday, July 25, 2008 at 10:38AM

Mostly Nice With Humidity On The Rise

A few early showers and clouds this morning have shown that humidity is definitely back on the rise. We can expect a mostly pleasant afternoon with temperatures a couple degrees warmer than Thursday. A front approaches our area Saturday moving through Sunday. We'll have increasing humidity and increasing chances for thundershowers Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. (Normally this time of year, we're worried about rain and the the finale of the Appalachian Summer Festival--but this year its indoors, Charlie Daniels Band in the Holmes Convocation Center 7:30 Saturday night.) Rain chances Sunday and beyond depend on the exact location of the slow-moving/stalled front. We have to include the chance of afternoon thundershowers; however, the icons probably suggest more rain than any one spot will actually see early next week.

The 2009 Ray's Weather Calendar Photo Contest is underway. It will run through July 31 with winners to be chosen by the middle of August. "Hit me with your best shot!" See our photo contest page for details and "fire away".

Friday Hi: 79 Lo: 58 Partly cloudy; South wind 5-10 mph becoming calm in valleys at night

Saturday Hi: 80 Lo: 63 More clouds by afternoon; Scattered afternoon & nighttime t-showers; South wind 5-10 mph

Sunday Hi: 80 Lo: 64 Mostly cloudy with scattered t-showers possible; More humid; South wind around 5 mph

Monday Hi: 80 Lo: 65 Mostly cloudy; Scattered PM t-showers possible

Tuesday Hi: 82 Lo: 64 Partly cloudy; Isolated PM showers & t-showers

Further Out

Wednesday - Partly cloudy; PM showers & t-showers possible; High in the lower 80s; Low in the mid 60s
Thursday - Mostly cloudy; Scattered PM t-showers; High near 80 degrees; Low in the mid 60s

Forecast Discussion

This morning the weakening remnants of thundershowers that formed well to our NW yesterday came through as a few light showers. Expect a pleasant afternoon. We have the slightest chance of a PM thundershower but not enough of a chance to mention in the forecast above. Temperatures today will be a couple degrees warmer than Thursday.

A front will approach Saturday afternoon--a slow moving weak front that will stall nearby early next week. We can expect increasing humidity and clouds Saturday afternoon; along with that comes increasing chances for thundershowers Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. Trying to "get fancy" with the forecast rain chances for early next week would be perilous. For now, all we can do is broadbrush scattered, mostly PM thundershowers Sunday through Thursday. The front may pull far enough back to the north by Tuesday to allow a drier day, but I wouldn't put the rent money on that. Even if that happens, thundershower chances will ramp up again Wednesday into Thursday. Temperatures will be warmer Tuesday and Wednesday. It's basic, classic summertime weather in the Southeast US.

The remnants of Dolly are in the Big Bend region of Texas about 100 miles SSE of Marfa TX. This is only noteworthy because I've been there and wonder how many of you have seen the "Marfa lights". Funny, the movie "Giant" was on TV Monday; it was filmed around Marfa. Dolly will continue to move west into Northern Mexico weakening as it goes. The tropical wave in the central Atlantic isn't looking healthy today; it may not be heard from.

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 has just been added; Waynesville, you're next. 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.