Friday sunshine, then Saturday bleakness, followed by sunshine Sunday

A cold air damming (CAD) extravaganza is underway. This is thanks to the jet stream seemingly stuck in "zonal flow", i.e. streaming west to east across the nation. Thus, cold fronts repeatedly enter the area and stall out nearby as they become parallel to the jet stream, losing their impetus to keep moving. 

Meanwhile, high pressure centers crossing New England force a shallow layer of cool air southward across the Piedmont, buckling these stalled boundaries southward and creating the CAD wedge. That setup features cloudy damp skies and chilly temperatures across a wide area east of the Appalachians.

This setup is repeating itself on a regular basis as shown on this forecast surface map graphic:

The light blue arrows indicate the CAD wedge. The left panel is the forecast map at 7 p.m. Saturday, the middle panel is 7 a.m. next Tuesday, and the right panel is for 7 a.m. Thursday.

Thus, the weather rollercoaster continues. Today - Friday - will be sunny and mild with afternoon highs around Mecklenburg county in the low 60s. But later tonight the clouds will return. bringing light rain and cooler temperatures. Saturday will thus be overcast with rain showers and afternoon highs stuck in the low 40s. Local rain gauges will collect perhaps a tenth of an inch of liquid.

Sunday looks to be a brief respite in the yucky weather, with sunshine and afternoon temperatures again reaching the low 60s. But by Monday morning gloomy overcast skies and damp conditions will return, with much of next week looking similar. At the moment Mecklenburg county temperatures look to remain warm enough to avoid wintry precipitation next week, but stay tuned for any updates on that!