#NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 Forecast (Monday)

Brian Neudorff @ 9:37 am May 25th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Above is a forecast for this afternoon across the Southeastern US

Sunday night two large cells of showers and thunderstorms moved over the Lowe’s Motor Speedway prompting NASCAR to reschedule the Coca-Cola 600 for Monday (Memorial Day) at noon. Not to be a “Debbie Downer” but it will once again be a challenge to get all or even start today’s race.

As a meteorologist I want to look for the silver lining, I want to be as positive as possible but I also want to have a correct forecast. If I think the forecast doesn’t look good for a particular event I won’t sugar coat it. I give my opinion as I see it. I like to say, “We forecast the weather we see, not the weather we want.” Trust me, that has been very true in my career. I am a NASCAR fan and I want to see racing today but looking at the forecast I think rain will be a big challenge just like it was last night.

The storm system that drenched and soaked Florida last week is making its way out of the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi Valley. As it moves north it is drawing in loads of tropical moisture over the Carolinas and the Southeastern United States. This saturated air mass is prime for the development of widely scattered and possibly widespread showers and storms over the Charlotte/Concord areas of North Carolina today. Especially this afternoon in the heating of the day when the atmosphere begins to get more lift to form showers and storms.

I normally tweet the forecast during and before the race but I will be traveling to head back home to New York from Indiana. If I have time to stop for lunch someplace I will log on to give an update. I will recommend a great site for NASCAR weather, Raceweather.net.