Lead Forecaster Daniel Crawley
Good Thursday morning everyone, the severe weather episode from yesterday has passed the region. We had several tornado warnings focused across the foothills last night. No word as of now if we had any touchdowns but there were some locations that did receive some tree damage and powerlines that were brought down.
Good news for today things are a lot more quiet. After a foggy start we will see a lot of sunshine today with temperatures in the upper 60’s to around 70.
A large upper trough that produced the severe weather yesterday will pass by on Friday. Meanwhile Northern Stream energy across Canada will dive down through the Midwest and help reinforce the trough as the northern and southern streams merge for a small period of time. You can see this on the image loop below as the energy across Canada dives down tomorrow.
Significantly colder air will start to filter in on Friday, initially it will hang up along the western slopes of the Appalachians but it will ultimately push across and bring colder air for the weekend. Highs on Friday will be 7 to 10° colder than today. And by Saturday we will see temps an additional 3-5 degrees colder than on Friday. Our friends in the North Carolina high country could see a few stray snowflakes as the northwest flow kicks in.
With a cold and dry air mass in place the risk of a widespread frost exists on Saturday night. Temperatures are expected to be in the 32 to 35° range across the Foothills and Western Piedmont with 20s in the mountains.
Make preparations for a return of cold air to the region, any tender plants will need attention on Saturday night and possible Sunday night. Frost in late March is quite common across the region
