Forecast Last Updated at Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 7:05AM

Not Bad for a Holiday Weekend

A weak cold front will approach the region today and move through tonight. Ahead of this front, interaction between this front, upslope flow and an upper level disturbance to our east, a few thundershowers are likely to develop Saturday afternoon and evening--isolated to scattered coverage, especially east of and along the Blue Ridge. 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.

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

Saturday Hi: 80 Lo: 58 AM fog, otherwise partly cloudy; Isolated PM t-showers with better chances east of the Blue Ridge; Light SE wind

Sunday Hi: 77 Lo: 58 Mix of clouds & sun; Slight chance of an afternoon t-shower; East wind 5-10 mph

Monday Hi: 75 Lo: 56 Scattered clouds; Pleasant; East wind 5-10 mph

Tuesday Hi: 76 Lo: 53 Mostly sunny; Pleasant

Wednesday Hi: 78 Lo: 55 Hard to find a cloud; A bit warmer

Further Out

Thursday - Mostly clear; Dry & Pleasant; High in the upper 70s; Low in the upper 50s
Friday - Partly cloudy; An isolated shower or two possible; High in the mid 70s; Low in the upper 50s

Forecast Discussion

A weak cold front will approach today and looks to pass through tonight. Isolated thundershowers are possible this afternoon and evening with better chances east of and along the Blue Ridge. The front will be just to our east Sunday leaving the slight chance of an afternoon thundershower.

Labor day through Thursday, 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. On the other side of that coin, that means a dry forecast with our rainfall deficits once again moving in the wrong direction.

Switching to the tropics, Gustav is now a strong hurricane over the NW Caribbean with maximum sustained winds over 100 mph, with further strengthening expected. Gustav will continue to move NW today, over western Cuba tonight and is expected to emerge into the southern Gulf of Mexico by Sunday. This storm has the potential to continue rapid strengthening 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, Tropical Storm Hanna is north of Puerto Rico moving and is moving west at a little better than 10 mph. Hanna is expected to strengthen further and become a hurricane as the weekend progresses. Current thinking sends Hanna west through the Bahamas by early Tuesday morning as a hurricane. By this time, Hanna's forward momentum is expected to slow greatly. That could translate to bad news for the Bahamas as it appears Hanna could batter the islands for a prolonged period of time. Hanna will continue through the Bahamas on Wednesday before aiming for the northeast coast of Cuba by Thursday. It looks like Hanna is going to be around for a while and could impact the lower 48 by this time next week. We'll keep an eye on things, as always, and bring you the latest information!

Have a great 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 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.