Forecast Last Updated at Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 9:07PM

Some Stars, Some Clouds

Early Saturday afternoon, Tropical Depression 3 was upgraded to Tropical Storm Cristobal. Cristobal is off the Carolina Coast and will not directly affect our weather. For tonight, a mix of stars and clouds are likely in what should overall be a pleasant overnight. Most of the region will have mostly nice weather for the nest few days, including the Alleghany County Fiddlers Convention.

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".

Saturday Hi: 83 Lo: 57 Partly cloudy; Any shower chance fades overnight; Light and variable breeze

Sunday Hi: 86 Lo: 62 Sunshine with scattered PM clouds; West wind 5-10 mph

Monday Hi: 86 Lo: 63 Scattered clouds; Slight chance of a PM t-shower; West winds 5-10 mph

Tuesday Hi: 85 Lo: 64 Partly cloudy; Scattered afternoon thundershowers

Wednesday Hi: 81 Lo: 63 Partly cloudy; A few degrees cooler; Chances continue for an afternoon thundershower

Further Out

Thursday - Partly cloudy; Maybe a PM thundershower; High near 80 degrees; Low in the mid 60s
Friday - A mix of sun and clouds; A few scattered PM t-showers expected; High near 80 degrees; Low in the lower 60s

Forecast Discussion

High pressure will continue to control the weather over western and northwestern North Carolina while newly formed Tropical Storm Cristobal will influence the weather along the Carolina coastline.

Cristobal's direct effects will be confined mostly to the Coastal Regions. However, convergence from the easterly flow around the coastal storm and a NW flow around the high centered over Alabama was able to producing lots of clouds over the mountains and even produced a stray shower or two Saturday afternoon. Temperatures were very mild and overall, Mother Nature provided decent weather for outdoor activities.

A cold front will enter the picture some time Monday evening and will basically stall out across the RWC forecast area and remain with us the rest of next week. That will increase and keep shower and storm chances in the forecast from Tuesday through Friday of next week.

Specifics on the unusually active July in the tropical Atlantic...

Tropical Depression 3 was upgraded to Tropical Storm Cristobal Saturday afternoon. As of Saturday evening, Cristobal was 125 miles east of Charleston or 205 miles southwest of Cape Hatteras. Cristobal's maximum sustained winds are coming in at 45 mph as he heads off to the northeast at 7 mph. It does not appear that Cristobal will become anything stronger than a tropical storm creating a messy but not dangerous weekend from the Coast to the eastern edge of the Piedmont.

Hurricane Bertha - yes, Hurricane - will not die. Bertha, only a maritime concern, is now packing maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and is moving to the northeast at 25 mph. Bertha is located about 490 miles east-southeast of Cape Race Newfoundland and poses no threat to any land at this time.

Finally, a tropical wave in the central Caribbean continues to head westward at about 15 mph. We have been watching this wave for almost a week now as it tracked from the Cape Verde region across the Atlantic and into the Caribbean. This wave still has a chance to strengthen into a named storm.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

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.