Brrrr

Thought I would share this with you....

Currently (just after 9pm), the temperature is 4 with a wind chill of -14 at the Nature Museum at Grandfather Mountain. I would imagine the summit is close to sub-zero!

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Technical Issues

Here at News 14 Carolina, we have had our share of technical issues this evening. We have been forced to go to back-up tape on a couple of occasions due to the HAL 9000 (the bohemoth that makes the whole thing go) acting up and not working properly. So, that is why you may have noticed some dated wording or weather material. At any rate, hopefully things get straigthened out soon....

On the weather front......brrrrr. Man, just opened the door outside of the studio here, and wow....I would say the arctic airmass is taking hold. Very blustery conditions out there now, and the mercury will continue to drop down toward the lower 20s tonight.

I still think most spots will remain in the upper 30s for highs tomorrow, then look out tomorrow night....widespread teens for lows are on the way. I have a temp forecast of 16 going for the Triad now in my overnight forecast package, and I believe Jeff has gone with 13 for the Charlotte market. Both would be records.

This is serious cold. Do not leave pets outdoors. Wrap up those pipes. And it seems like every time we get one of these cold weather snaps, unfortunately someone gets seriously injured or killed from carbon monoxide poisoning from trying to heat their home with something it is not designed for, such as charcoal. Please be careful.

Bundle up, stay warm. Warmer times are ahead. We should hit the lower 60s for highs early next week.

By the way, I get the feeling we will see a cold air damming situation set up as our mid-week storm system approaches. But, it looks too warm for anything wintry.

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Blowing Rock

Looks like some snow falling right now up in Blowing Rock. Check out the webcam below....obviously, this is time-sensitive....

http://www.highcountrywebcams.com/webcameras_BlowingRockRoad.htm

Actually, a number of cameras are showing the snow nicely right now....

http://www.highcountrywebcams.com/

Look at the cameras about Boone and Blowing Rock....

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Wednesday Afternoon Post

First of all, thanks to all of you for checking back and keeping up with the blog. I am sorry for the lack of posts the past couple of days....lots of family things going on, such as my oldest daughter's school Christmas show last night.

At any rate, I am back in the saddle today, holding down the midday fort for both Charlotte and the Triad.

No late-week storm system to bring us any precipitation is coming, but a big-time blast of arctic air is heading our way. This arctic shot will only last about 48 hours, but let me tell you....this will be some of the coldest air you see this time of year.

The arctic air really plunges in here beginning late tomorrow afternoon. I think by Friday morning, temps will be near 20 degrees, and I think many of us will stay in the 30s all day Friday. A very cold night is on the way Friday night with lows by Saturday morning likely in the teens. In fact, as I am typing this I see the new 12z GFS MOS data has come in with a low of 14 Saturday morning....yikes! We could very challenge the record low of 16 Saturday morning set back in 1917.

Gazing into the crystal ball, I am sticingk with the idea of generally warmer weather next week and probably much of the week after. But, I also still think things are probably aligning for a return to colder weather around here toward the end of the month or early January. I have not gotten a good feel for when I think this will happen....give me more time on that one.

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Saturday Evening Tidbits...

Some quick evening notes here....

• Showers push in to roughly the eastern half of the viewing area Sunday afternoon and evening....but the rain should leave before the atmosphere cools enough for anything wintry.
• The upcoming week will be cold....below average for highs and lows. I still think low to mid 20s Tuesday morning.
• The models can still not figure out how to handle the end of the week possibilities. Today's 0z GFS kept the energy more bundled, and thus, a more impressive late-week system. Other runs shear the energy out and nothing impressive develops. We shall see...
• Had to switch mental gears today...after anchoring the evening weather shift for the Triad Wednesday through Friday, I am back in the Charlotte market today and tomorrow.
  
• Can we please have some sort of college football playoff system. I don't want to hear the excuses....I am tired of having to debate every year who should play for a championship. Every other level of football has playoffs....why can't Division I football???? No, we have to have another year of debating who should play Ohio State......Florida or Michigan??? (assuming Florida holds on to win the SEC champ. game...although it is a dog fight right now)

End of rant.....have a great night!

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The week ahead....

Cold.....that about sums up next week. I think every day from Sunday through at least Friday will likely feature below average high and low temperatures. Look for many highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s next week.

We have two potential storm systems to deal with. The first one is a coastal area of low pressure that will form later Sunday and Sunday night just off of the Carolina coast. I think some showers will be possible over the eastern parts of both the Charlotte and Triad News 14 markets Sunday afternoon and night. And, while it is a close call, I think the rain leaves just prior to the deeper cold air arriving Sunday night. So, at this point, I don't think we have any wintry weather issues with that system. But it is fairly close, and we will watch it.

The second potential storm system is toward the end of the work week. However, that is about the extent of that I can tell you about that system. There are players on the field for a system to posssibly form Thursday or Friday, but whether or not those players come together properly or not remain to be seen. So, stay tuned on that one.

Also, if you remember (and you can read the whole thing by looking in the archives on the right), my forecast for December was for Charlotte to average 0.5 degrees above normal for the month. I still think that forecast is in OK shape. While we will see well below average temps through next week, I think the mid-month period sees a nice warm-up before possibly cooling down again toward Christmas. So, the forecast for December still looks OK right now.

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Impressive dewpoint drops....

The dewpoint at Greensbobo dropped 22 degrees in 2 hours this afternoon (from 62 to 40)....impressive stuff. Charlotte has seen a 24 degree dewpoint drop in 3 hours. Can you tell a cold front has moved through???

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Cold front sweeping through

The severe weather threat is over for our area. Thankfully, it never really got going. The cold front is moving through western parts of the area right now, and it will sweep rather quickly eastward. It is quite warm out there as I am typing this with temps running in the low to mid 70s.

The wind shift with the cold front is lagging a bit back to the west. So, we really won't see any rapid temperature drops until late afternoon and especially early evening.

I am just diving into all of the model data for the weekend and next week. WIll post more a bit later on....

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Watching the radar....

Watching to see if any active storms try to develop today. So far, all is quiet. The window of opportunity for any active storms would be later this morning into early afternoon. Again, so far, so good.

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