Forecast Last Updated at Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 6:33PM

Scattered PM Thunder

Showers and thunderstorms will be scattered around the foothills this evening with a slight chance overnight. We have another good shot for showers and thunderstorms on Wednesday before the weather dries out at least briefly for week's end.

The 2009 Ray's Weather Calendar Photo Contest is underway. It will run through July 31 with winners to be chosen by the middle of August. "Hit me with your best shot!" See our photo contest page for details and "fire away".

Tuesday Hi: 86 Lo: 68 Mostly cloudy overnight; Slight chance for a shower or storm; Light SW wind

Wednesday Hi: 89 Lo: 69 Partly cloudy; Afternoon showers & thunderstorms a good bet; Light SW wind

Thursday Hi: 88 Lo: 69 Still lots of clouds; PM thunder possible again; Light NW wind

Friday Hi: 87 Lo: 68 More sunshine; Just an outside shot at a late-day thundershower

Saturday Hi: 88 Lo: 69 Sunshine with afternoon clouds & PM thunder chances

Further Out

Sunday - More typical July weather; PM thunder chances; High in the upper 80s; Low in the upper 60s
Monday - Scattered clouds; Chance for a PM t-shower; High in the upper 80s; Low in the upper 60s

Forecast Discussion

A disturbance cruising southeastward through the region generated some showers this morning around the mountains and foothills. Those moved out, allowing a break from any wet weather for a few hours, but heading into the early afternoon hours, normal daytime heating led to the development of more scattered showers and thunderstorms. Expect only a slight chance for a shower or storm this evening and for the overnight.

We have a cold front sagging southward into the area by late Wednesday and Thursday, and this will bring another good chance for showers and thunderstorms. The front may get just far enough to our south to provide a dry Friday. Yet another southward-sagging frontal boundary will elevate the chance for showers and thunderstorms over the weekend. Again, coverage will be scattered and nothing of an all-day nature.

Hurricane Bertha is weakening way out in the Atlantic, about 900 miles SE of Bermuda. As Bertha gains latitude, it is expected to continue to weaken and pass east of Bermuda this weekend.

Announcements

RaysWeather.Com continues to grow. We are an "information age" company using the web to broadcast the message but also as a tool for producing the message. RaysWeather.Com (what we call RWC) has evolved from "Ray's hobby in Beautiful Downtown Rutherwood" in 1999 to the most widely read media outlet in NW NC reaching 150,000 to 200,000 people per month and covering the weather from NC/VA line to Asheville and Wolf Laurel. We will continue to grow geographically as well--Burnsville has just been added; Waynesville, you're next. The heart of the growth is good data, "local flavor", and THE most reliable forecast.

We recently added our 6th forecaster to the best forecast team ever assembled for this region. It's time for us to introduce "the crew"...

• Dr. Ray Russell is a Computer Science professor at Appalachian State University. His PhD is in Computer Science from Georgia Tech (1989); weather has been a long-time passion. He started posting a "snow forecast" on the university website back in the mid 1990's; this evolved into RaysWeather.Com in 2000. Ray lives in Boone and has taught at Appalachian State since 1991.
• Eric Anderson (RWC's Chief Meteorologist) received his degree in meteorology from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and is a 15-year veteran of NOAA with experience in forecasting, observation and analysis. A native of western North Carolina, Eric's former tenure in the National Weather Service gave him the opportunity to forecast for areas of the Mid-Atlantic region. His professional interests include upslope flow snow events in the southern Appalachians, as well as cold air damming in the Carolinas.
• Alan Simons, born in Fayetteville NC, has a Bachelor of Science in meteorology and almost 20 years of professional experience that includes forecasting for newspapers, websites, radio, aviation, and the military. He first became interested in weather in North Carolina, and RWC takes him back home after a variety of duty stations, from New York to Hawaii. Alan's been with the RWC team since 2003.
• Tim Kirby joined Ray's Weather Center in October 2004 and lives in his hometown of Fries, VA (pronounced Freeze). The folks from this small Grayson County town say "it's freeze in winter and fries in summer". He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from NC State University. While at NC State, he was president of the NCSU Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society. Before joining RWC, Tim worked for the National Weather Service for ten years in Raleigh, Chattanooga and Morristown, Tennessee. Tim has always loved the challenge of forecasting and owes his dedication to a childhood fascination of snow (no school!).
• Harold Alston is a N.C. native with Bachelor of Science degrees from both App State (Broadcast Communications) and UNC-Asheville (Meteorology). He has 30 years experience tracking and forecasting NC weather including 15 years experience for media outlets. Nailing down Appalachian wedges & wintry possibilities are his areas of expertise with a lifetime of N.C. weather experiences to reference.
• Jeff Cox, a native of Asheville, is the latest addition to the RWC team. He earned a Bachelor of Sciences in Atmospheric Sciences from UNC-Asheville. At UNC-A, he was the lead forecaster for the school's Weather Forecast Line, campus Radio Station, "The Blue Echo" and the campus newspaper, "The Blue Banner." Jeff has experience as a meteorologist in both television and radio. He spent over 2 years in Macon, GA, as the chief meteorologist at WGXA FOX-24. He also has experience as a radio broadcast meteorologist for The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Georgia.

So now you know who's behind the forecast. It's not magic--just lots of hard work by many people. In addition to meteorology, keeping RWC going requires office mangement, programming, computer system's administration, ad sales, and graphic design. We'll introduce you to the rest of the team soon.