Forecast July 9th: Sunny skies followed by a risk of storms and heavy rainfall.

It'll be a more active day across the state today. Happy Wednesday, North Carolina! I expect the day to start off quiet for most everyone with just some patches of fog, followed by mostly sunny skies. It'll turn hot and humid once again today. We will then see scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms develop. We will have to watch for gusty winds/heavy rainfall/ Flash Flooding with any storms that get going today. The concern is scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms that will develop across Central and Western North Carolina this afternoon and evening. It appears to be a very summertime setup, but the saturated ground raises a greater concern. How will the storms form, the spark from the heating of the day, and the lee trough (often called the Piedmont trough), which is lower pressure that often sets up in the summer east of the mountains. It usually runs north-south across the Piedmont roughly along I-85 or U.S. 1 from around Charlotte through the Triad up toward Raleigh and into southern Virginia. This is where the air rises and clouds and storms start forming, especially on hot and humid days. We should have a good amount of that today. Highs today will be in the 80s and 90s, be aware of hit or miss storms mainly after 2PM today. . The concern is that the hit-or-miss storms that develop today will bring heavy rainfall, and any additional rainfall over the Western Piedmont is not needed, given how high area streams and rivers are already running.

I'll be passing along radar updates like normal on FB.

-Ethan