Shadow was seen....

Phil up in Pennsylvania saw his shadow, so, as the story goes, that means six more weeks of Winter. Of course, since we are only 5 or 6 weeks into Winter, seems to me Winter will continue until its normally-scheduled change to Spring on March 20. But I digress....

Enjoy the weekend....

The photo above is courtesy of The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

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Goundhog Day

Groundhog Day is upon us, and it will be quite mild this weekend. It will also be dry this weekend, so get out and enjoy!

Some showers are possible Sunday night into Monday as a warm front lifts through the area. I think many locations will then have a shot at 70 degrees Tuesday afternoon before a cold front sweeps through by Wednesday morning. That cold front will bring us a round of rain and possibly a few storms Tuesday night.

We will then cool down behind that system a bit, but nothing overly cold at all. In fact, I don't see any major intrusions of arctic air into our part of the country for the next week or so.

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Thursday Evening...

I am in the forecast seat for the Triad market this evening, so that is where all my my forecasting energy has been spent.

A Freezing Rain Advisory will go into effect at 9pm for the northwest Piedmont, including Surry and Stokes counties. Ice Storm Warnings have been hoisted up in the mountains.



A well-defined wedge is now in place, and our airmass remains very dry. Much drier than most modeling is picking up on, by the way.

Rain will settle in tonight, and from the Triad on through the northwest Piedmont, there could be a period of freezing rain. For the Triad itself, I expect any freezing rain to be brief, and warm temperatures aloft should make it quite difficult for any ice to accumulate. Up toward Stokes and Surry counties, ice could accumulate, mainly on elevated surfaces late tonight. Even there, temperatures will likely kick above freezing tomorrow morning.

The main potential problem is some slick travel conditions in the northwest Piedmont during the overnight hours tonight.

This still looks like a nice, soaking rain with total rain amounts between 0.75" and 1.5"

A few storms might occur tomorrow morning, but it looks like the best chance of that occurring will be off to the east of the Charlotte and Triad regions.

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