Skies dry in time for weekend fun

WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel said that light rain would continue into the early hours of Saturday morning, but by daybreak most of the wet weather will have moved east.

“They only thing that may happen during the afternoon is that as things heat up and become more unstable we start to get some isolated showers developing with the heat of the day," Fishel said.

Planners of outdoor events like Fayetteville's popular Dogwood Festival were keeping an eye on the sky and pointing to a sunny and seasonal weekend forecast in hopes for record attendance.

Durham's annual Earth Day festival, scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Rock Quarry Park, was moved indoors due to the expectation of muddy conditions. The event will be held from noon to 5 p.m. at Holton Career and Resource Center on 401 N. Driver St.

In the last couple of weeks, abnormally dry conditions have crept across most of the Tar Heel state and into Virginia and South Carolina.

"Now, that's nothing to be concerned too much about yet," Gardner said. "Except, we're trending drier and drier."

The weekend will remain dry and sunny with temperatures in the 70s, Gardner said. Those temperatures will push next week into the 80s, which is roughly 10 degrees above the normal temperature for the time of year.