Good morning, ENC! Some patchy fog this morning is possible as you head out the door on your Tuesday morning so be careful out on the roads. We should see another beautiful day with sunny skies and highs in the mid-80s inland to near 80 along the coast. These conditions should persist through the week as surface high pressure and an upper-level ridge control the weather across the southeast. Highest temperatures will be Wednesday where we could see temperatures climb into the upper-80s for inland sections.
By Thursday, high pressure shifting out of the Great lakes region will bring a slight northeasterly flow which will help keep temperatures from climbing much further than the mid-to-upper 80s inland through Friday ahead of the strong cold front that should pass through the region on Friday night.
The approaching cold front will bring in much colder temperatures to the region for this weekend with highs only reaching the mid-60s and the overnight lows dropping down into the low-to-mid 40s. Some areas near the Virginia border could drop as low as upper-30s. As for precipitation with the front, there is some uncertainty as the European model keeps hinting at just enough moisture available to produce a thin line of showers ahead of the front while the GFS keeps the area dry during frontal passage. Since there is a slight possibility of available moisture during frontal passage, I can’t rule out a stay shower on Friday night between 6pm-midnight (times could shift in later forecasts).
Temperatures should rebound somewhat by the beginning of the work-week with highs returning to the low-to-mid 70s and another stretch of dry weather ahead.
As a follow up to the tornadoes that impacted North Carolina over the weekend, the NWS our of Morehead City issued a preliminary damage survey of the EF2 tornado that hit Duplin County. The report indicated top winds around 115-125 mph with the width and distance to be determined today or tomorrow. There was major damage near Wallace, NC of a two car garage lifted and moved off the foundation completely and a 1000 pound plus feed silo anchored into concrete with six bolts lifted out of concrete. The full report can be found here.
