Forecast Last Updated at Friday, May 9, 2008 at 7:17AM

Only Slight Chances for Showers Through Saturday

Rain arrived on schedule late Thursday. Severe weather was reported in the Foothills and Piedmont. This morning, there are a couple light showers upstream; so we have to leave in the slight chance for a light shower for a few more hours. We'll see the sun later today, and temperatures will be pleasant. A weak disturbance will bring the slight chance of a shower or thundershower tonight. Saturday will be mostly dry; however, a stray shower or thundershower cannot be completely ruled out. Mother's Day looks rainy and cool. Monday will be windy and much cooler.

Friday Hi: 69 Lo: 54 Mostly Cloudy; Slight chance of an early AM light shower; Slight chance of a shower or T-shower tonight; NW winds 10-20 mph, 5-15 mph after midnight

Saturday Hi: 69 Lo: 52 Mix of clouds & sun; An isolated shower can't be ruled out; NW wind 5-15 mph becoming East 5-10 mph

Sunday Hi: 60 Lo: 41 Cloudy; Rain & T-showers; Light East wind becoming West 10-20 mph at night

Monday Hi: 50 Lo: 41 Plenty of clouds; A morning shower possible; Much cooler & windy

Tuesday Hi: 64 Lo: 46 Decreasing clouds; Not as chilly

Further Out

Wednesday - Increasing clouds; Showers & T-shower return late day & at night; High in the upper 60s; Low in the lower 50s
Thursday - Mostly cloudy; Maybe an AM shower; Cooler; High in the mid 60s; Low in the lower 50s

Forecast Discussion

A front is morning through the area early this morning. Rain and storms ahead of the front came late Thursday into Thursday night. Early this morning we have a slight chance of a light shower in the wrap-around NW flow. The sun will make an appearance by afternoon.

Tonight a weak system will move through with the slight chance of a shower or thundershower. Saturday is the "tweener" day--mostly pleasant, but we still can't completely rule out a shower or thundershower during the daytime.

The next low will move from Eastern Oklahoma late Saturday to the Ohio Valley by late Sunday. Late Monday, it will be a strong low sitting off the Delmarva. We can expect rain Sunday. How much rain and thunder are now in question. Cold air damming along the east side of the Appalachians is a possibility limiting severe weather chances on the east side of the mountains.

Monday will be surprisingly chilly and windy with showers, as we will be in a strong NW flow around that strong low off the Delmarva. Warmer weather will come Tuesday and Wednesday, but then the next low will be approaching quickly bring showers and thundershowers late Wednesday into early Thursday. Thursday will be a bit cooler.

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.

So now you know who's behind the forecast. It's not magic--just lots of hard work by many people. In addition to meteorology, keeping RWC going requires office mangement, programming, computer system's administration, ad sales, and graphic design. We'll introduce you to the rest of the team soon.