Update Wednesday Afternoon:
……and just like that, we’ve picked up a month’s worth of rain in the first six days of March! On average, March usually sees around 3.69″ of rain. So far since last Saturday, we’ve got over 4.00″ in many locations… with more on the way!

On and off rain will continue through most of the afternoon and evening, before the rain activity slowly tapers off tonight. Temperatures should hold in the 50s through the night. Unfortunately, we’re not completely dry with a couple of showers lingering overnight and early tomorrow morning.

And morning shower tomorrow should be short lived and light, but clouds will be pretty stubborn. Slowly but surely we’ll dry out into the afternoon with highs near 60°. A sliver of dry air squeezes in on Friday to give us a mix of sun and clouds – a nice refreshing dry day to reset!

More rain moves in for the weekend… but we’re optimistic it won’t ruin your plans too much. Scattered showers develop later Saturday and should move out early Sunday morning.

There’s consecutive sunny, dry days in the extended forecast for most of next week!

Grab the umbrella and stay dry!

-Steve

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We have had some wet weather lately. We are already about 2.3″ above the average for the month, and the month basically just started. We dried out a little yesterday afternoon, but the persistent clouds (sigh) didn’t allow for much drying. The ground is very soggy, and it is saturated. This is bad news as there is a lot of rain in the forecast. We started this morning with lots of rain in the area. It started up early, and it kept going all morning long. There were spots of heavy rain.

There is a stationary front along the coast, and there is a deep layer of moisture pushing up from the south.

Regional Weather Map

These both helped to create the rain this morning. However, you can see an area of low pressure and a cold front closing in from the west. There is basically a moisture funnel between the fronts that is pulling moisture up from the Gulf Of Mexico, and it is launching it up into the northeast states.

So we’ll have cloudy skies all day. There will be rain for most of the day, and it will be heavy at times.

Future Trak (This Afternoon)

The rain showers will become more scattered overnight. Then a few scattered showers will continue into tomorrow morning.

So far we’ve had about a quarter to a half an inch of rainfall since midnight.

Rainfall since midnight (as of 9AM)

In total I think we are looking at 1-2″ of rain solid. Some locations could see 2.5-3″.

Rainfall Forecast (4 Models)

There may be even higher amounts across the Outer Banks. As of this writing there is a Flood Watch up for Outer Banks Dare and Mainland Dare counties.

Flood Watch

Keep in mind that isolated flooding will be possible just about anywhere in the region. There will definitely be ponding on the roads. The wind is fairly light out of the northeast. So at least we won’t have to deal with tidal flooding. However, there may be some poor drainage. High temps will be stuck in the 50s all day.

Tomorrow the cold front and the low will slowly push offshore. We’ll have a few showers in the morning. Then we’ll be drier in the afternoon.

Future Trak (Thursday Morning)

I’m dubious about any clearing in the afternoon, but it’s possible that we’ll have a little clearing late. High temps will be near 60. Friday looks like it will be pretty nice. We’ll be partly cloudy with high temps in the mid-upper 50s.

The Saturday forecast has changed a little bit (in a good way). There is still rain in the forecast, but now it looks like rain will move in later in the afternoon.

GFS Model Saturday Afternoon

This would give us a decent first half of the day before the rain arrives. Then scattered showers would continue Saturday night into Sunday morning. Hopefully, we’ll dry out by that afternoon. The even better news is that we should have a longer stretch of drier weather next week. Possibly for a few days. Let’s hope so. We really need to dry out.

In like a Lion… Out like a Lamb I guess.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler