Forecast Last Updated at Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 12:43PM

T-storm Chance Continues; Drier for Thursday

A cold front will sag south from the Ohio River Valley today, keeping the chance of a shower or storm in the forecast as we mark the middle of the work week. Any storm that develops could be on the strong side this afternoon. This front will move through tonight ushering in slightly cooler and drier air for Thursday and Friday, before better shower chances move back in for the weekend.

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Wednesday Hi: 85 Lo: 60 Partly sunny; Several degrees cooler; Still a chance for a shower or t-storm; North wind 5-10 mph

Thursday Hi: 85 Lo: 59 Scattered clouds, more so in the morning; A stray leftover AM shower possible; Light northerly breeze

Friday Hi: 86 Lo: 64 Scattered clouds; Cannot rule out an isolated PM t-shower; South winds 5-10 mph

Saturday Hi: 86 Lo: 66 Partly cloudy; A better chance for afternoon showers and t-showers

Sunday Hi: 86 Lo: 67 Partly cloudy; A continued risk for PM thunder

Further Out

Monday - Partly sunny; Continuing to watch for scattered afternoon thunder; High in the lower 80s; Low in the mid 60s
Tuesday - Partly cloudy; Scattered shower and storm chances holding on; High in the lower 80s; Low in the mid 60s

Forecast Discussion

A cold front stretches from the Ohio River valley west to the Midwest. As the day progresses, this front will begin to sag southward and become an influence on our weather for this afternoon, before pushing south of the region tonight.

Temperatures will climb this afternoon into the mid 80s, providing a nice relief from the low 90s we have seen the past several days. The airmass ahead of the front remains quite warm and moist, though, so we can't rule out a shower or thunderstorm developing. Any storms that do form could be a bit on the strong side with gusty winds and heavier rains being the main threat.

As mentioned above, this cold front will push through and south of the region tonight allowing high pressure to build in from the north. Slightly cooler and less humid air will move in behind the front and provide us with what appears to be a a pretty nice Thursday. Depending on how quickly the front moves through, we could see a lingering shower early Thursday morning, but any leftover clouds and showers should definitely be gone by lunchtime Thursday.

A very isolated threat for showers and t-showers is introduced back into the forecast by Friday with better chances arriving for the weekend as our next front enters the pictures for a Sunday/Monday time frame. It appears to stall out over the region early next week, therefore, we have a thunderstorm chance in the forecast from Saturday through the end of the forecast period, which takes us through Tuesday of next week.

Let's get you updated on the tropics...

Tropical Storm Cristobal is becoming extratropical in the northern Atlantic and no longer a concern. This will be the last update on Cristobal.

Of much more concern is Hurricane Dolly, centered 35 miles northeast of Brownsville, TX at midday. The highest sustained winds are near 100 mph near the center. Winds over hurricane force are battering the South Padre Island resorts early this afternoon. In addition to the wind damage, Dolly is crawling northwest at only about 7 mph, which means prolonged, very heavy rainfall can lead to extensive flooding. Brownsville is a very flood prone area, and I think this will be big news in the coming days. Dolly will make landfall by mid-afternoon on the Texas side of the border, between Port Isabel and Port Mansfield.

Finally, a tropical wave continues to move through the Cape Verde Island region. As we mentioned yesterday, our team of meteorologists at RWC have been watching this wave for days now and will continue to monitor it for development as it heads west through the eastern Atlantic.

Have a great Wednesday.

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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 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.