Tuesday Afternoon Update

Stormtrack Doppler Radar is set on a wide view this afternoon while we get a break from showers and storms in Central and Eastern North Carolina. You have to look all the way back to Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky before you run in to any rain and thunder.

The same spinning low that we've been talking about at length since late last week is finally showing signs of slowly pulling out, but not before it sends another round of afternoon showers and storms in our direction for Wednesday.

So why have we been seeing clouds and storms the past few days? This same low is mainly just a pocket of colder air in the mid and upper atmosphere. When air at ground level is warmed, namely by sunshine, it rises. This warmer air is going to keep rising through the cooler pocket while forming clouds and eventually producing rain and thunderstorms. Once we lose daytime heating, the clouds go away and our skies clear out just in time to do it all over again the next day.

So, the chance for showers and a few storms will hang around at least through Friday as the slow low continues to move away.

As for temperatures, we've been a bit below average the past couple days. Today we reached 72 in both Raleigh and Fayetteville. For the rest of the week we'll stay right around the average of 79 for Raleigh in mid May. Expect us to be pushing the upper 70's to low 80's by Friday.

Right now a front is likely to push through Friday ending the rain late thus making the weekend pleasant, but any timing issues will need to be addressed. Some computer models want to slow this front and keep it close to the Carolinas.

Next Week: We could be in for a big warm up down the road as the jet stream is looking to make a push to the north. If this is the case then we'll be seeing the thermometer easily in the mid to upper 80's by May 25th.

Update: The National Weather Service has confirmed a tornado from the Mother's Day Event in North Carolina. An F1 tornado touched down 2 miles north of Broadway in Lee County and remained on the ground for at least a half mile. Winds were estimated to be 100 miles per hour! You can read about the update here in this report.