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This is Harry Gerapetritis at the National Weather Service in Greer, SC. This Weekly Impact
Weather Briefing will cover the period through next Monday, December 23, 2013.
Please note that we do not routinely update these weekly weather briefings. The very
latest weather forecast for the western Carolinas and northeast Georgia can be found on our web
page at www.weather.gov/gsp.
Here is an overview of the expected weather for the upcoming week. A cold front
will move through the region late Tuesday – bringing very windy conditions to the NC
mountains Tuesday night. Dry high pressure will then settle across the region Wednesday into
Friday. Temperatures will steadily warm – with high temperatures solidly in the 60s
most areas by Friday afternoon. A cold front will approach over the weekend and rain
shower chances will increase, however, temperatures will continue to warm. The best
chance of rain will be Sunday and Sunday Night – with late day thunderstorms possible.
Showers could linger into Monday depending on how quickly the front clears the region.
First though, let’s take a look at a visible satellite image of fog that developed in the Little
Tennessee River Valley on Monday morning. With very little change in the air mass,
fog will likely form in the southwest mountain valleys of western North Carolina again on
Tuesday morning. However, this should dissipate quickly through the morning hours.
Moving ahead to Tuesday night, gusty northwest winds will likely peak late Tuesday
evening across the North Carolina mountains in the wake of the passing cold front. Here
is an image of the wind gust speeds expected to develop by late Tuesday evening. Wind
gusts of 40 to 45 mph will be quite possible at the higher elevations of the northern NC
mountains. Very windy conditions will continue overnight into Wednesday
morning, but gradually subside through the day on Wednesday.
Here is a graphical depiction of the weather pattern for mid to late week - with high pressure
setting up off the southeast coast by Thursday. This will allow a southerly feed of warm
air to develop and produce the warm-up that we will see heading into the weekend.
Here is the high temperature forecast by Friday afternoon – with temperatures pushing close
to 70 degrees across the southeast Piedmont and solid 60s across most of the area.
Now, here is the depiction of the expected weather Friday through next Monday. Rainfall
chances will slowly build ahead of the approaching cold front Friday through Saturday. Deeper
moisture will arrive ahead of the front on Sunday which should slip through the area by
Monday at the latest.
With this setup, the heaviest rain will likely fall across the southwest mountains of
western North Carolina – and most of that during the latter half of the upcoming weekend.
Rainfall totals could reach 1 to 2 inches in this area, but with totals mainly less than an
inch outside of the mountains. Temperatures will remain very warm – about 15 degrees above
normal in most places.
Just ahead of the cold front, thunderstorms will become possible late Sunday into
Sunday night. While the timing of the cold frontal passage is still uncertain, there could be
some overlap between unstable air and strong wind energy through a deep layer of the
atmosphere ahead of the front. The best overlap is shaded in the light color on the map for
Sunday night, with the best chances in the piedmont. It is too early to speculate if any
of thunderstorms that develop in this area will become severe – but stay tuned.
Expect very windy conditions across parts of the North Carolina Mountains Tuesday
night. A warm-up is in store late this week through the weekend. Rain chances will
increase through the weekend with thunderstorms possible by Sunday night.
Additional web resources can be found at these links. Thanks for listening to our weekly web
briefing.