All indicators support the warmth discussed from my prior post earlier this week about the big warm up coming. I've attached a visible satellite image taken at 10:31am Saturday. In this image, we're using the sun's light to illuminate various levels of cloudiness. In the image provided, most of the cloudiness is along or west of the North Carolina mountains into Kentucky and Tennessee and a small strip of clouds extend across Georgia into South Carolina. The absence of clouds across our area is because of those mountains. We have a predominant west to southwest wind from the surface up to around 6,000'. This is a hostile wind direction for clouds trying to move into our area as the wind flows over the mountains and dries out significantly. Notice the small strip of clouds in Georgia to South Carolina... the tall mountains of North Carolina only extend into a small portion of northern Georgia, so the west wind flowing across these clouds is not getting the benefit of downslope drying over the tall mountains and they're able to hold together a little better. In the image attached, you'll also see Lake Norman.
Everything is on track for a day in the 65 to 70 (* Update - Charlotte hit 74 for a high today) range across our area for this Saturday afternoon! More for Sunday... in the 60s & 70s although we'll have a mix of clouds and sun. How about this for Monday, with very warm air aloft around our big ridge of high pressure and a west to southwest surface flow to 6,000', the potential exists for a day of 73 - 78 degree weather!!! That would shatter the record of 73... stay tuned.
Enjoy this warm stretch into next midweek as next weekend looks much cooler with a strong cold front pushing across.
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