As the front passes through and brings another round of rainfall this afternoon/evening to the area, winds will also begin to pick up. Below you can see the most recent Nam 3km model projection for wind gusts at 8pm around WNC. You can see that gusts over 60mph will be possible in the highest elevations along the NC/TN border. This will blow off most of the leaves unfortunately…
Around Asheville…
Hold on to your hats.. the winds will be gusty here this evening as well. Expect winds to pick up in the next 2-3 hours and gust through the early morning tomorrow. Unfortunately, this will also blow off many leaves that are in the process of changing around WNC. Rainfall will also be likely this evening/Sunday am as another half inch+ is likely. Below you can see the Nam 3km precipitation projection for the next 24 hours. It shows 1” of rainfall through tomorrow am at the Asheville Airport.
Flash Flooding Is A Concern
Looking at the precipitation maximums along the Blue Ridge Escarpment 3”-4” of heavy rainfall appears to be possible through the next 18 hours in isolated locations. Below you can also see the HRRR model, and it suggest similar totals. This will effectively create nasty conditions across all of WNC this evening and into tomorrow. Please be careful when traveling around the area. Streams could rise quickly, and ponding on the roadways is all but to be expected.