Steve signing in at 7:45 AM. The rain has eased up a bit, mainly - TopicsExpress

Steve signing in at 7:45 AM. The rain has eased up a bit, mainly light rain across the area this morning with temperatures in the mid 40s. An area of heavier rain and some embedded lightning is located over the Savannah River Valley from Augusta GA to Lake Hartwell and moving northeastward, should reach us in another two to three hours. So the heavier rains should resume later this morning and continue until frontal passage later this afternoon. The cold front is still well to our west, west of Nashville TN and moving only slowly eastward. A cool air wedge has kept our temperatures in the low and mid 40s overnight but the wedge is eroding to our south and east. Laurinburg, about 70 miles east of Charlotte, reports 64°. Im not even sure the wedge will break here before frontal passage late this afternoon. Right now it looks like the wedge boundary only makes it to the I-85 corridor and while we may see 50° reading later today, they may actually occur after frontal passage for a brief period of time before the colder air spills into our area. Rain and showers should taper off early this evening with a few mountain snow showers possible later tonight and early Christmas morning. As far as thunder is concerned today, we may see a few lightning strikes this afternoon and if a line of showers and storms develops along the actual frontal boundary, brief gusty winds, but the greater threat of severe storms appears to exist in the warmer air where the wedge has broken. That would mean Charlotte, Salisbury, possibly Gastonia. For us, the severe storm threat today is next to zero. Christmas Day should be pretty nice with sunny skies along the I-40 corridor, AM snow showers ending along the Tennessee line, and temperatures rising to the mid 50s with a westerly wind. Friday and Saturday dont look too bad either with temperatures rising to near 60° Saturday afternoon. However, clouds move back in Saturday afternoon ahead of the next front that should bring the chance of rain showers by Sunday. Behind Sundays front, temperatures cool down a little but weather remains unsettled to some degree with partly to mostly cloudy skies, additional rain chances on Monday into Tuesday. As far as Arctic air and snow possibilities, I dont foresee much happening before the New Year, although it looks like colder air could be in store for us the first week of January 2015.