Forecast Last Updated at Friday, August 29, 2008 at 6:55PM

Typical Late-August Weather

After four days of much-needed rain, the sun returned today along with warmer temperatures. Highs this afternoon ranged from 68° at Fred's on Beech Mountain to 86° at Phillips Gap. We have a "barely worth mentioning" chance for a evening shower. Expect areas of fog to develop overnight. A weak front will move through Saturday night. Ahead of this front, a few thundershowers will develop Saturday afternoon and evening--isolated coverage. Sunday will have some clouds; isolated afternoon thundershowers will be possible Sunday as well. But drier air will prevail--Labor Day through Thursday look dry and pleasant. See the tropical discussion section below for information about Gustav and Hanna. No problems with your beach travel plans this weekend!

Voting in the 2009 Ray's Weather Center Calendar Photo Contest ended August 20. Winners will be announced September 3.

Friday Hi: 81 Lo: 59 Isolated evening shower possible; A few clouds overnight; Areas of fog forming; Light west wind

Saturday Hi: 78 Lo: 60 PM clouds; Isolated PM t-showers; Light SE wind

Sunday Hi: 76 Lo: 59 Mix of clouds & sun; Slight chance of an afternoon t-shower; East wind 5-10 mph

Monday Hi: 75 Lo: 55 Scattered clouds; Pleasant

Tuesday Hi: 75 Lo: 54 Mostly clear; Pleasant

Further Out

Wednesday - Mostly clear; A bit warmer; High in the upper 70s; Low in the upper 50s
Thursday - Mostly clear; Dry & Pleasant; High in the upper 70s; Low in the upper 50s

Forecast Discussion

The drying process really kicked in today with more sunshine and warmer temperatures. This evening, skies will be partly cloudy with just the slightest chance for a shower. Areas of dense fog will develop overnight.

A weak front will approach Saturday passing through at night. I'm less impressed with rain chances from this front than I was yesterday. Isolated thundershowers are possible Saturday afternoon and evening. The front will be just to our east Sunday leaving the slight chance of an afternoon thundershower.

Labor day through Thursday (and even beyond the 7-day forecast), high pressure will be in control of the weather in the northeastern third of the US. Drier air will move in, giving us pleasant weather--quite a contrast to what we have experienced this week.

The real action is in the tropics. Gustav is now a hurricane over the NW Caribbean. Gustav will move NW tonight near or over the Cayman Islands and then over western Cuba on Saturday on its way to the southern Gulf of Mexico by Saturday night. This storm has the potential to detonate and become a major-league hurricane over the next few days as it enters the Gulf of Mexico. It poses an ultimate threat to the Louisiana/upper Texas coast by early next week.

Meanwhile, Gustav's running mate, Tropical Storm Hanna is NE of Puerto Rico moving WNW. This weekend it will be east of the Bahamas strengthening to a hurricane. Next week Hanna will turn west (forced by the strong high pressure that will be keeping our weather dry and pleasant) and probably be near the Bahamas by the middle of next week. It may even get into the Gulf later next week. In case that's not enough, there are more tropical waves further east to occupy our attention beyond next week. Did someone say this would be an active tropical season?

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.