Sunshine and clouds will vie for dominance until Sunday

The continued presence of the cold air damming wedge across the Eastern U.S. has kept temperatures down and cloud cover in place across the Piedmont. This 24 hour temperature change graphic illustrates the effects of "Da Wedge" (blue shading = cooler temps) this Friday morning:

Mecklenburg County - at the black star - is on the southwestern edge of these effects, with sunshine prevailing along and east of I-85 while mostly overcast skies continue over areas further west. Today thus looks to be variably cloudy across the county, with temperatures creeping up to near the 80º mark this afternoon accompanied by a northeasterly breeze.

Saturday will dawn under mostly cloudy skies but sunshine will work its way into the area as the day progresses. Temperatures will top out in the low 80s tomorrow afternoon with a north wind stirring the air. The current forecast contains a small chance of Saturday afternoon showers or storms, but those may not occur. A low pressure system near Cape Hatteras this Friday morning looks to move out to sea tomorrow as high pressure takes charge a bit quicker than originally thought.

Sunday then appears to offer the better weather of the two weekend days. Mostly sunny skies will prevail and temperatures will rise into the mid-80s as more typical August conditions assert themselves. In fact, next week could bring back the 90s!