Forecast Last Updated at Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 7:44AM

Sunny but Chilly Weekend

Temperatures this morning were bone chilly as promised with readings in the teens very common across WNC. It'll be a slow warm up today with a struggle to reach the 40s. Anyone north of Asheville with any snow on the ground will find it even hard to warm up. Our next front is scheduled for Monday with some rain showers likely during the day on Monday. Following the front's passage, a changeover to snow is likely along the TN/NC border. Snow shower chances in those favorable western slope areas will likely last through Tuesday. High pressure moves back in for late next week, including Thanksgiving Day.

The 2009 RWC Calendars are on sale now. Calendars are showing up in stores now. $2 from the sale of every calendar will go to the Hospitality House Combined Campaign.

Saturday Hi: 44 Lo: 22 Sunshine, but a few more afternoon clouds; Not as cold; Light north wind

Sunday Hi: 51 Lo: 30 Lots of sunshine; A bit milder; Trying to reach 50; SE wind 5-10 mph

Monday Hi: 51 Lo: 31 Mostly cloudy; A decent chance for rain; Any leftover rain changing to snow flurries overnight; SW wind 5-15 mph

Tuesday Hi: 38 Lo: 29 Partly to mostly cloudy, windy & colder; A chance for snow flurries or snow showers during the morning

Wednesday Hi: 45 Lo: 27 Scattered clouds; Not as cold

Further Out

Thursday - Mostly clear for Thanksgiving Day; More clouds arriving at night; High in the lower 50s; Low in the lower 30s
Friday - A mix of sun and clouds; Cool shopping weather; High near 50 degrees; Low in the lower 30s

Forecast Discussion

Friday's snow was pretty impressive for mid November. The morning commute was caught off guard in Asheville with lots of traffic accidents and school closings. A healthy dusting was recorded as far south as south Buncombe County. From Asheville north, snow flurries and showers continued for much of the day. Along the TN/NC border, several inches of snow was recorded in many locations.

The snow machine has been turned off for the weekend, unless your heading to the ski slopes, in which they may have their snow machines working overtime to add onto the natural snow from the three snow events over the past week. Mother Nature however will keep it chilly with highs remaining in the low 40s today and struggling to reach 50 Sunday.

Our next cold front is scheduled for Monday. A few rain showers are like Monday. As the front passes through Monday night, a changeover to snow is likely for the usual suspects along the TN/NC border. Snow chances for those areas are likely to remain in place through Tuesday.

High pressure will work its way back into the region for late next week. Turkey day looks pretty nice with highs trying to close in on the 50 degree mark. For those of you brave enough to camp out for the post-Thanksgiving Day sales, you'll need to bundle up with lows Thursday night into Friday morning like to be at or below freezing.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

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--Burnsville 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.