Cooler End to the Month

AM Headlines:

• Breezy across the higher elevations
• Cooling down this week
• Wedge sets up late week – dropping temps 10-15 degrees below average
• Heavy rain reaches the area late week

A cold front is east of the area this morning with drier air filtering into the region. Highs will reach the low 80s this afternoon with winds transitioning out of the west. Breezy across the mountains with gusts up to 30mph possible. Winds die down overnight as cooler and drier air filters into the region. Highs will reach the upper 70s under mostly sunny skies. Take advantage of the beautiful weather Tuesday. Clouds from the outer rain bands of Ian begin to push into the region Wednesday with temps falling into the low 70s during the day. A wedge will set up across the region bringing cloudy skies and well below average temps Thursday through Saturday. Highs will only top out in the mid to upper 60s.

Rain will be heavy at times from what’s left of Ian moves into the southeast. We will likely encounter the first showers early Friday with steady and at times heavy rain beginning Friday afternoon through early Sunday. As of now, 1-4″ of rainfall will be possible across the region, but depending on exactly where the path of this storm lines up will tell us where the heaviest rain will fall. A few stronger gusts are possible where we could see some downed trees and a few power outages. As of now, the main concern will be heavy rain leading to a flooding threat, but we will need to watch the path of this storm very closely.

As of now, Ian is a category 1 hurricane located less than 100 miles southwest of the Cayman Islands. It will rapidly intensify into a major category 3 hurricane over the next 24 hours, tracking over western Cuba Tuesday morning and west of the Florida Keys Tuesday night It is forecast to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane by Wednesday morning where it will slowly move north through the warm Gulf waters off the Florida coast. It will likely make landfall in Florida Thursday as it takes aim at the panhandle. It will remain a tropical storm well into the southeast through Friday. If this storm moves east of us, impacts will be minimal. If it sways further west, then impacts will be greater. As of now, heavy rain is the main concern. However, if this storm tracks further west of Charlotte, we could also see the potential for severe weather this weekend.