Steve signing in at 7:48 AM. A line of organized thunderstorms is currently crossing I-81 in eastern Tennessee. Additional thunderstorms are developing from Sevierville to Newport on I-40 just west of Haywood and Madison counties. The storms are moving fairly quickly southeastward ahead of a cold front that is expected to cross the counties early this afternoon. These thunderstorms have maintained intensity during the past several minutes on radar. Current thinking is that they may weaken once they reach the mountains in another hour or so but because they are moving so fast, I expect that those of you in the higher elevations will likely see some rains, gusty winds and lightning before the storms die off. Along the I-40 corridor and the communities of Marion, Morganton, Lenoir, Hickory, Conover and Newton, isolated light showers are possible with a rumble of thunder or two. Otherwise, a band of cirrus, blow-off from these storms will pass overhead a little later this morning. Current temperatures range from 62° at Brindletown to 69° at Hickory with 65° reported at Burke Weather HQ in Valdese. Well see a warm day today with temperatures in the mid 80s. Even if the cold front moves through on schedule, northwesterly winds coming off the mountains will actually tend to offset the temperature falls as they dry things out. Right now, it looks like the best chance of thunderstorms redeveloping out ahead of the front exists closer to the Charlotte area and the SC upstate. If the front stalls or slows down, and that is not out of the question, storms may develop further upstream and closer to us this afternoon. I dont really see this happening but if it does, some of these thunderstorms could be big hail producers with a secondary threat of damaging winds. At any rate, the front should be well south of us by evening, setting the stage for a clear and comfortable overnight, lows Saturday morning in the lower 50s. Saturday and Sunday should be very nice with low 80s during the day, 50s at night, and mostly sunny skies with light northwest winds. Memorial Day may be a little warmer but skies should still be sunny and any pop-up afternoon showers or storms should stay to our west and south. By Tuesday through midweek, we face a more summer like pattern with sunny skies in the morning, warm and humid temperatures in the mid to upper 80s, and scattered afternoon thunderstorms. Another final update on the storms in Tennessee: right now they have moved another 40 miles or so southeastward, located from Gatlinburg to Greenville to Johnson City or about 20 to 30 miles west of the NC/TN line. Slow weakening appears to be occurring, but there are still some strong storms, especially entering Haywood and Madison Counties. Some of us in the western half of McDowell, NW Burke and NW Caldwell, are likely to see cloud to ground lightning, heavy rain and gusty winds between 9 AM and 10:30 AM this morning.
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 12:08:01 +0000
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