Very Cold Til Friday Followed By Warming Trend

As of Wednesday morning, our mountains from Asheville to Boone are still in for an accumulating upslope snowfall. Asheville will get 2 to 5 " while Boone should get atleast 6", with higher peaks around 10" to 15", not including drifts. Subzero temps visit the mountains by Thursday morning, with around 10 to 15 common in the foothills.

A warmup begins Friday, and we go above normal in temps for atleast a week. The long range features a return to cold and stormy, so you'll need to check back as I fine tune the forecast on the hunt for a Winter storm.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2008 has started off extremely cold, with heavy snow for our mountains. The next time your driving down 74, look west and northwest for the snowcaps. This cold spell will be coming to a rapid end by Friday, when the high slides offshore and our winds return from the southwest, bringing in much milder air. Our next chance at rain looks to be around January 10, so enjoy this nice break from the cold and wet weather we had recently. December ended up very wet, with 4.39 inches falling, our wettest month of 2007! Otherwise, it's still unknown if 2007 will be our driest on record, but I measured only 28.5 inches of rain for the year, which could be the driest in Shelby's records. Forest City and surrounding communities are about the same, as Cleveland and Rutherford were the 2 driest counties in the state last year....with both areas about 21.5 inches below normal. Thats almost 2 feet of water missing from our ground tables. Hopefully the tables have turned and we can resume a wetter pattern this year. I don't see snow for us in the next couple of weeks, but we've already had some close calls, so if we can get the right timing of moisture and cold air, we'll land us a snowstorm soon.

THE FORECAST...

Friday...Cold start, then warming trending. Highs low 50's
Friday Night...Clear. Lows mid 20's.
Saturday and Sunday...Partly sunny, warmer. Highs mid 50's Saturday, upper 50's Sunday.