Welcome to winter! Well, at least a taste of it anyways. The coldest temperatures of the season are upon us. Yesterday saw a sharp drop off once an Arctic front moved through and the winds were a howlin all night. Snowmaking has begun at the ski areas, with Sugar Mountain opening today and Cataloochee following suit tomorrow. Hopefully they can lay down a ton of manmade snow over the next 48 hours because the weekend doesn't look promising…
Arctic high pressure will make for a sunny, but VERY chilly day today. We will struggle to get above freezing. Brrrr!
High pressure will begin to slide off to our east tomorrow and offshore over the weekend. As this does so, temperatures will begin to moderate tomorrow and we'll return to normal levels by the weekend. Tomorrow will see highs that are 15-20 degrees warmer than today and sunshine will persist.
Unfortunately, as that high moves offshore, wind flow turns to a southeasterly direction and an increase of moisture will move into the region. Friday will see increasing clouds later in the day with showers possible in the evening and night. Saturday doesn't look as bad now as it did yesterday. There will still be a lot of clouds but precip coverage looks minimal.
The timing of the next frontal passage has been moved up to early Monday now. This means showers are a good bet for Sunday afternoon, into the overnight hours, and then ending Monday morning. A decrease in clouds on Monday afternoon will be accompanied by a large drop in temperatures as colder air moves in. It won't be as impressive as this past week's surge of cold air, but it'll be chilly nonetheless.
Another area of Canadian high pressure will keep temps well below normal on Tuesday, even with plenty of sunshine. Wednesday will be several degrees warmer.