September 12, 2018 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

It’s a wild time in the weather world, and a really scary one, too. There are quite a few hurricanes in the Atlantic to deal with, the main one being Florence. We know it’s going to hit the coast somewhere, but whether it’s North or South Carolina remains to be seen.  From there, it will bring rain and wind to us early next week. Welcome to the Tri-Cities Weather Blog forecast through the weekend!

Florence doesn’t appear right now to be going where we thought it was going a couple days ago. Now, it looks to be heading farther south down the coast before it makes it inland in South Carolina. The track seems to go toward Georgia this weekend and up to our area early next week. But even that could change. Here’s the outlook based on what we know right now:

• Tonight-A few evening showers, then partly cloudy. Patchy morning fog. Low 68.
• Thursday-Partly sunny with a small chance of rain or a thunderstorm. High 87.
• Thursday night-Evening rain showers ending, becoming partly cloudy. Low 68.
• Friday-Partly to mostly sunny, only a small chance of rain. High 87.
• Saturday-Partly cloudy with a couple stray showers or storms. High 84.
• Sunday-Partly to mostly cloudy. Scattered storms develop in the afternoon. High 80.

As of the 5 PM National Hurricane Center update, Florence is a category 3 hurricane, with winds sustained at 120 mph. That’s still a nasty storm, but weaker than it was this time yesterday. As of that update, it’s supposed to skirt the North Carolina coast Friday, and make landfall in South Carolina (near the NC border) late that night or early Saturday.

If that pans out, tons of rain will fall in southeastern North Carolina and in much of South Carolina. Storm surge will be dangerous near the coast, and the winds will be horrible. That said, it does appear that the storm will move away from there, which is somewhat good news. Florence looks to cut through South Carolina this weekend, and arrive in the Smokies on Monday.

Of course, that means our summer weather pattern should stay that way for a little longer. Where I was thinking yesterday that it might be raining for a lot of Saturday thanks to Florence, many of us might be rain-free, with only a small chance of a summertime pop-up shower or thunderstorm. That will be the case for tomorrow through Saturday.

By Sunday, as Florence weakens and comes inland, its rainfall will start approaching our area. Look for that to bring some gusty winds at times as well. Heavy rain and thunderstorms are likely by then, and could continue all the way through Tuesday.

That’s how it looks right now. I’ll try to have an update tomorrow before we do high school football on Friday night. This situation is changing by the day, but the one thing we’ve known for a while is that the Carolinas will see some awful weather along the coast starting tomorrow.

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September 7, 2018 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

Football and fundraisers are going to render this blog to a few less details, and hopefully next week we’ll be able to continue the daily updates, which is the point of this blog. That said, a couple of things need to be mentioned about the weekend. Welcome to the Tri-Cities Weather Blog forecast through Tuesday!

First, every one of the next four days will feature showers and storms, but none of those days will have rain all day. Monday might be more cloudy and cooler than the other days, but that’s about the only difference! There will likely be significant amounts of time each day through Tuesday where rain will not be falling.

Second, as always, if you hear thunder, make sure to get to an enclosed building. This will likely keep you out of lightning’s reach, especially if you’re also away from windows. Staying inside 30 minutes after the last heard rumble of thunder is a good rule to follow before going back out. All that said, here’s the forecast!

• Tonight-Partly cloudy, a few showers and storms from time to time. Low 67.
• Saturday-Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers and storms. High 85.
• Saturday night-Cloudy with scattered showers and storms. Low 68.
• Sunday-Partly sunny with a small chance of rain or a thunderstorm. High 86.
• Monday-Cloudy with rain and thunderstorms likely. High 81.
• Tuesday-Cloudy with scattered showers and storms. High 84.

A cold front will move through here late Monday, but will come back as a warm/stationary front soon thereafter, keeping chances of rain up for Tuesday.

As for high school football, some of you may have to wait out a delay for a storm in the mountains or coming out of that area. After it gets dark, things will be fine weather wise for most of us. I’ll be at Sullivan Central as they host Johnson County tonight. Air time is 6:45pm with kickoff at 7:30 on 96.3 The Possum. Join us on the radio or listen online at 963thepossum.com. Have a great weekend!

August 28, 2018 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

Summertime weather continues in late August, and we’ll have typical late August weather through the rest of the month. In fact, we’ll start September with temperatures a bit above average. Welcome to the Tri-Cities Weather Blog forecast for tonight through Saturday!

Weather is calm here in our area this afternoon, with late afternoon storms not popping up just yet as of 3:45 PM. A cold front that will arrive in a much weaker form later this week is spawning off severe thunderstorms in Wisconsin, making that the weather news of the day. Our forecast is hot and humid for a while:

• Tonight-Maybe an evening rain shower, then partly cloudy. Low 65.
• Wednesday-Morning fog, then a sunny day with pop-up afternoon storms possible. Highs near 90.
• Wednesday night-Partly cloudy with a few scattered showers and storms possible. Low 68.
• Thursday-Partly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. High 85.
• Friday-Partly cloudy with scattered mainly afternoon storms. High 85.
• Saturday-Mostly sunny, only a small chance of rain late in the day. High 87.

High pressure is close at hand, but this time of year that doesn’t mean all that much. Occasionally on afternoons like this, cumulus clouds in the sky grow up into the atmosphere to become cumulonimbus clouds, which bring a short respite from the heat with rain and a few rumbles of thunder. They quickly die down, especially at night. These are called pulse storms.

The cumulus clouds outside my window in Blountville this afternoon don’t have much vertical development, which should mean less storms today. However, that could be a different situation in the higher elevations, so keep that in mind until sunset.

After that, we’ll have a little fog early in the morning, with tomorrow looking similar to today. That cold front brings better rain and thunderstorm chances Thursday and Friday before it dies out, leaving Saturday as a very warm and humid day with afternoon storms possible once again.

As always, keep in mind that if you’re near one of the storms, get indoors until it dies down or moves on. It’s rarely too long before you can get outside and resume working or playing again.

Speaking of playing, the ETSU High School Game of the Week stops off at Sullivan North Friday night as the Golden Raiders take on Cosby. I’ll be on the air with Rick Brooks for all the action starting at 6:45 Friday evening, with kickoff coming at 7:30 on 96.3 The Possum. You can stream us online at http://www.963thepossum.com.

August 20, 2018 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

After some rain this morning, the rest of the day has been mostly dry across the Tri-Cities. That changes tomorrow, but the process brings cooler, less humid weather the last three days of the week! Welcome to the Tri-Cities Weather Blog forecast for tonight through Friday!

If you’re heading out to the Appalachian Fair this week, any day looks good at this point. The exception may be tomorrow, as a cold front looks to bring some scattered showers and storms our way. After that, you’re not going to believe it’s late August! Here’s the outlook:

• Tonight-Partly cloudy, some scattered showers and storms possible. Lows near 70.
• Tuesday-Partly to mostly cloudy, with scattered showers and thunderstorms. High 84.
• Tuesday night-A few scattered showers and storms, otherwise mostly cloudy. Low 68.
• Wednesday-Mostly sunny with a small chance of rain. High 78.
• Thursday-Mostly sunny. High 78.
• Friday-Mostly sunny. High 83.

There are still a couple stray showers around, but that’s pretty much all we’ll see for a while tonight. Later on we might get some rain and storms as a cold front that’s in Illinois and Missouri through Texas heads our way. It looks like that front moves through here tomorrow, which will trigger off-and-on showers and thunderstorms during the day.

After the cold front moves through, we might have a couple stray showers or storms tomorrow night through Wednesday, but our weather improves a lot after that! Cold fronts don’t normally have much effect on us this time of year, but this one will. Look for cooler weather with temperatures not touching 80 Wednesday and Thursday as a drop in humidity will be easy to notice as well.

An early look at the weekend indicates our usual afternoon pop-up showers and storms returns by then. I’ll have more on that as I can through the rest of the week.

Make sure you go out to see WHCB, Love FM and 96.3 The Possum at the Appalachian Fair this week! We’re all in commercial building number 1, with WHCB and Love FM together and The Possum on the other side of the building. I’ll be in The Possum booth tomorrow from 4:30 to 7, and in the WHCB booth (it’s the one with the castle!) on Wednesday at similar times. Stop by and say hello!

August 16, 2018 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

Every time I help broadcast a sporting event, whether it be play-by-play for baseball or the analyst seat for football, I realize just how exhausting a job it really is, at least mentally. It’s fun, too…which definitely makes it interesting to do!

During tonight’s game, I mentioned a look at the weather forecast would be posted tonight, so here it is…very short and to the point, because my brain is done for the night. Here’s the outlook for the next couple days, with a quick discussion.

• Tonight-Partly cloudy, maybe a shower toward morning. Low 68.
• Friday-Cloudy with showers and storms likely. High 82.
• Friday night-Cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Low 68.
• Saturday-Cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. High 80.
• Sunday-Cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. High 82.

Since NASCAR is in town and many high schools start games tomorrow night, the chance for thunderstorms is a big deal. Fortunately, Sullivan North’s 30-20 win over Sullivan Central tonight happened on Thursday, which meant dry weather for us.

And as it always is, even “showers and thunderstorms likely” doesn’t mean it’s going to rain all day. So keep that in mind as you’re out and about, there will be breaks in storms. But that in itself might cause havoc for games and racing.

I’ll have a better look at chances of football delays and racing actually occurring tomorrow afternoon, but right now it looks like delays are possible for football tomorrow night, and could be likely for NASCAR events this weekend.

Thanks for checking here for the forecast, have a great Friday!