Forecast Last Updated at Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 11:49AM

Cool Day; Colder with Snow Showers/Flurries Tonight

A dry cold front will move across the Southern Appalachians today. Our brief relaxing of the chill factor will turn back to windy and cool. Tonight will be windy and colder with snow showers (west and higher elevations) and flurries (east near the Blue Ridge). Snow showers will end as flurries Friday morning. After a very cold Friday night, a slow "mild up" will be the theme this weekend; however, temperatures will remain below normal. Clouds will increase Sunday night and rain will develop Monday into Monday evening associated with a front moving through Monday night. Colder air and another round of snow showers will follow for late Monday night and Tuesday.

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.

Thursday Hi: 41 Lo: 22 Fair skies turn cloudy; Air cools down late; Chance of nighttime snow showers & flurries; NW wind 10-20 mph with gusts to 40 mph

Friday Hi: 25 Lo: 15 Becoming partly cloudy; AM snow showers & flurries possible; Cold; NW wind 10-20 mph with gusts to 35 mph (5-15 mph at night)

Saturday Hi: 37 Lo: 23 High clouds; Chilly; NW wind 5-15 mph becoming light at night

Sunday Hi: 45 Lo: 31 Mostly clear day, becoming cloudy at night; Not as cold

Monday Hi: 43 Lo: 32 Cloudy; Rain during the day & evening; Turning colder at night with rain possibly changing to snow showers or flurries late at night

Further Out

Tuesday - Mostly cloudy; Colder; Maybe early flurries, then nighttime snow showers possible; High in the lower 30s; Low in the mid 20s
Wednesday - Partly cloudy; Chilly; High in the upper 30s; Low in the upper 20s

Forecast Discussion

We can expect a cool day, but much colder air will return tonight in the wake of a dry front moving across our region today. Snow showers (west near the TN/NC line and higher elevations) to flurries (eastern extreme of the mountains near the Blue Ridge) will develop tonight ending as flurries Friday morning. This event will be lighter than earlier in the week: 1"-2" possible at higher elevations and along the western upslope areas near the TN/NC line, a dusting to 1" for most, no accumulation to a dusting in eastern Ashe County, Alleghany County, and east of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Friday will be very cold--within a degree or two of Tuesday's frigid temperatures. That will make six full days in a row where the ski slopes have been able to make snow virtually 24/7, setting the stage for a great weekend of skiing.

Saturday and Sunday, we can expect gradually milder temperatures but only in comparison to the frigid temps Friday; temperatures will still be below normal for November.

The next front will move through Monday night. Ahead of the front we can expect a cool rain Monday especially in the afternoon and evening. Colder air will move in Monday night possible changing rain showers to snow showers late Monday night.

Tuesday will be colder and windy with snow showers and flurries as an upper level low forms along the New England Coast. Wednesday looks chilly but dry.

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.