March 27, 2018 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

It’s been a mostly dry Tuesday, but a cold front brings changes to that trend for the rest of the week. Welcome to the Tri-Cities Weather Blog forecast for tonight through Sunday!

A lot of folks west of our area will see a lot of rain in the next five days, with 4-5 inches of rain possible from East Texas to near Memphis between now and then. We won’t have to worry about that much here, but good amounts of rain are coming to finish the week. Here’s the outlook:

• Tonight-Mostly cloudy, maybe a few sprinkles. Lows near 50.
• Wednesday-Cloudy with scattered rain showers. High 72.
• Wednesday night-Scattered showers, possible thunderstorms. Low 53.
• Thursday-Cloudy with scattered showers likely. High 73.
• Friday-Mostly cloudy with a few showers, mainly early. High 58.
• Saturday-Mostly sunny. High 68.
• Sunday-Increasing clouds, some rain possible. High 64.

Today’s high temperature popped up to 67 degrees this afternoon. With the exception of Friday, we’re going to be close to or above that the entire forecast period. And with that in mind, the holiday weekend looks promising!

A cold front is organizing out to our west, and will likely get close to here by Thursday. Then it will be overtaken by another front, which will move through Friday. That’s what will bring our semi-constant chance of scattered showers the rest of the week.

Tomorrow looks mostly dry, but rain will be a part of the day as well. Ahead of that front, temperatures will keep climbing, even more than they did today. Thursday should feature more rain, but it should still be quite warm.

With the cold front moving out on Friday, we’ll start to see rain chances drop. Our best chance at a completely dry day out of the next five will be Saturday. Most of Sunday should stay dry before a new cold front brings in rain late in the day and at least through Tuesday.

Interested in baseball? Most high school teams play conference/district games on Monday and Tuesday, so it doesn’t look good for those games right now, or for much of the rest of this week. However, breaks in rain tomorrow might get a game in, depending on field conditions.

As far as the big leagues go, this year is the earliest Opening Day in a long time, if ever! On 96.3 The Possum, we’re about to start our 11th season covering the Cincinnati Reds, with first pitch Thursday at 4:10 as they play the Washington Nationals. Coverage on 96.3 FM, as well as 100.7 FM (near Kingsport) and 870 AM (until sunset) will begin at 3:40 Thursday afternoon…we hope!

The forecast for baseball in Cincinnati is not a good one either, sadly, but we’ll see how things go. A well timed break could see the game played on time!

Thanks for checking out the forecast, have a great day!

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March 26, 2018 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

It’s turned out to be a beautiful day, a touch cooler than average with a good bit of sunshine. That’s not going to continue, as rain chances and temperatures go up for most of the rest of the week. Welcome to the Tri-Cities Weather Blog forecast for tonight through Friday!

We ended up today with a high near 60 degrees, unofficially as of 5 PM. That’s a little warmer than expected, but about the same number of degrees cooler than our average of 62. A cold front develops to our west in the next day or so, then stalls near I-75 toward midweek. That will potentially bring us rainy weather for quite a while to finish the week. Here’s the outlook:

• Tonight-Increasing clouds, with a couple showers possible after midnight. Low 39.
• Tuesday-Mostly cloudy with morning rain showers, windy and warmer. High 65.
• Tuesday night-Mostly cloudy, maybe a sprinkle. Low 47.
• Wednesday-Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. Highs near 70.
• Thursday-Rain showers likely. High 72.
• Friday-Cloudy with some mainly morning rain showers. High 64.

Low pressure near Kansas and a cold front extending south from it will combine with a cold front to the north to provide our next big weather situation the last three days of the week. The cold front will be strong enough as it develops to kick a few light rain showers our way late tonight into tomorrow, but it shouldn’t be rain that lasts a majority of the day.

In fact, Tuesday night looks mostly dry, before rain returns on Wednesday. By then, the front will have completely organized its separate segments and come together, stretching from Pennsylvania through West Tennessee and into Texas. It could take the better part of two full days from there to get it out of here.

Therefore, expect rain showers on Wednesday and Thursday, through at least Friday morning. It appears right now that the front will finally move through early Friday afternoon, bringing rain to an eventual end and maybe getting the sun out behind the clouds by the time Good Friday is over.

Temperatures will be mostly above average all the way through the period, at least until Friday when we get to the mid 60’s for a high, not far above our average temperature this time of year of 62 degrees.

Thanks for checking here for the forecast! Now that I’m back from vacation and finishing up some things at the weather office in recovering from said vacation, more weather blogs are to come each afternoon. Stay tuned!

March 9, 2018 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

It’s been a dry day with sunshine today, but clouds and some rain are coming, with a sharp divide between rain and snow through the weekend. Welcome to the Tri-Cities Weather Blog forecast through Tuesday!

Look for mostly rain in the Tri-Cities as a warm front moves through tonight. A cold front gets through here later, bringing  better snow chances for all of us. Here’s the outlook:

• Tonight-Increasing clouds, rain developing late, changing to snow in the mountains. Low 34.
• Saturday-Morning snow showers change to rain showers with cloudy skies. High 50.
• Saturday night-Cloudy with a small chance of rain. Low 38.
• Sunday-Cloudy with rain showers and some mountain snow. High 50.
• Monday-Cloudy with rain and/or snow showers. High 45.
• Tuesday-Partly to mostly cloudy. High 45.

We’re going to transition a lot from rain to snow and back again in the coming days, which will limit accumulations for the most part. But due to more snow being likely in Southwest Virginia, everyone there is under a Winter Weather Advisory from the National Weather Service from tonight at 7 to tomorrow morning at 7.

Here in the Tri-Cities, we’ll get rain to start, while the mountains will get snow for most of this run. A warm front moves through Saturday, which will change snow to rain for all of us. Saturday night will provide a little break for everyone before the cold front begins to push rain back in on Sunday.

Some of that rain could be quite heavy, so those of us who are not fond of snow will be happy we’ll have temperatures close to 50 by the end of Sunday afternoon. Folks in the mountains may see snow again during the day, with snow continuing off and on Sunday night.

By Monday, the cold front will get through here, and when it does we’ll see any rain that’s left over change to snow. But most of the moisture should be gone, at least for the Tri-Cities, before the cold arrives. So we’re looking at maybe an inch or two of snow through Tuesday, while folks in Southwest Virginia along I-81 north of Abingdon could see 3 to 4 inches of snow by the time it’s all said and done.

I noticed yesterday that there was a big divide between snow amounts on all the computer models, and today it’s similar, but much less of a divide. I don’t think any of this will be a crippling snow for our area, but there’s a possibility of a good amount of snow the farther east you go in Southwest Virginia by the time it’s all said and done.

I’ll be watching all of this unfold this weekend, and I’ll have updates on Twitter and here as needed. There will be one more forecast update on Sunday. Have a great weekend!

March 6, 2018 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

It was a cloudy, misty, dreary day for a while, but the sun came out this afternoon! The gap between cold fronts is giving us a bit of a break between rounds of precipitation, and thanks to there being two cold fronts moving through by morning, we might see a little snow by the time we wake up tomorrow. Welcome to the Tri-Cities Weather Blog forecast for tonight through the weekend!

One front is almost through here, but another one remains. It will bring cold enough air to get snow showers for a while in the mountains, and changes from rain to snow and back again in the Tri-Cities. Here’s the outlook to spell it all out for you!

• Tonight-Partly cloudy this evening, cloudy with rain or snow showers late. Low 35.
• Wednesday-Mostly cloudy with rain showers, some snow in the mountains. High 45.
• Wednesday night-Cloudy with scattered showers changing to light snow. Low 27.
• Thursday-Morning flurries, then skies become partly cloudy late. High 38.
• Friday-Partly cloudy. High 48.
• Saturday-Early snow showers become rain showers. High 55.
• Sunday-Rain showers likely, high 54.

Due to all these changes, the amount of snow we see won’t be all that much here in the Tri-Cities. I think maybe a dusting might be it until you get into the higher elevations, where an inch or two of snow is possible through Thursday. I’m not sure if any of this will cancel any school except for in the mountains.

Thursday will start to clear out, but it’ll be a cold and windy day in the process. We bounce back with a dry and warmer day on Friday before rain begins on Saturday and hangs around on Sunday. That could start as snow showers early Saturday morning.

I’ll have more updates on the weekend’s weather as I can through the rest of the week, including hopefully a new forecast tomorrow afternoon. Until then, have a great Wednesday!

March 5, 2018 #TriCitiesWx Forecast

It’s been dry since Friday! It’s always good to get a weekend without rain, and we did get that, as expected. We are going to see rain moving in tonight, and some of it might change over to snow tomorrow night in spots through Thursday morning. Welcome to the Tri-Cities Weather Blog forecast through Friday!

The good news is, it’s been so warm recently that the ground is also warm. So it’ll take a bit of snow to get accumulations of any kind, and I’m not sure we’ll get all that much. We could see rain mixing with snow at times, which should also keep accumulations down. Here’s the outlook:

• Tonight-Cloudy with rain developing late. Low 38.
• Tuesday-Cloudy with morning rain showers. High 57.
• Tuesday night-Mostly cloudy, rain and/or snow showers. Low 37.
• Wednesday-Mostly cloudy with rain showers, mixing with snow in spots. High 47 (but dropping).
• Thursday-Cloudy and cold with snow flurries. High 39.
• Friday-Partly cloudy. High 48.

This appears right now to be an event where we see a good amount of breaks in the precipitation. Most of it in the Tri-Cities will be in the form of rain, with some snow toward the end of this late Wednesday into Thursday. Snow showers are more likely, with accumulations more likely, in the mountains of North Carolina and Southwest Virginia.

How much? Well, I’m glad you asked. I’m thinking if the Tri-Cities gets a dusting that will be about the most of it from a snow standpoint. Higher elevations might get an inch or two, and that appears to be largely dependent on how close to West Virginia you are.

In fact, I’m tempted to leave most of western North Carolina in the same boat with the Tri-Cities in seeing very little snow accumulation. The best chances of an inch or two are likely to be in Buchanan and Tazewell Counties in southwest Virginia. That’s right up there next to Kentucky and West Virginia.

I’ll keep a close eye on it, and make adjustments. Even as I was recording today, I thought that high Wednesday might be a bit ambitious. So it’s a good chance I’ll back off on that tomorrow. We’ll see what the weather computers tell me tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile, don’t be too concerned about the cold or snow. It won’t be around for long. Have a great Tuesday!