By Nathan Ham
The fall equinox officially arrives at 9:31 a.m. on Tuesday morning, but if you have been in the High Country over the past three days, cooler fall temperatures have already arrived in perfect timing with the change of the season.
Low temperatures dropped into the 30s across major portions of the High Country, including a chilly 35 degrees on Sunday morning in Boone. Frost was visible throughout the area as well. According to Ray’s Weather Center, this is one of the earliest cooldowns in the last decade and the other times that temperatures dropped this low were from rainy storm fronts that moved through.
Blowing Rock dropped to 38 degrees on Sunday morning and 40 degrees Monday morning. Zionville recorded a low temperature of 36 degrees on Sunday and West Jefferson had a low of 35 degrees on Sunday and 38 degrees on Monday. Beech Mountain had the coldest temperature in the area, falling to 34 degrees on Monday morning. Sugar Mountain was a chilly 35 on Sunday and 37 on Monday.
Temperatures will warm up some the rest of the week with lows getting back into the mid-40s and even into the low 50s by Thursday. High temperatures will be in the upper 60s Tuesday through Thursday before rain moves back into the forecast for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
With the arrival of fall tomorrow, days will slowly begin to get shorter until the shortest day of the year on December 21, which will also mark the first day of winter.