100417 Race Update

Updated Race Forecast – October 4

Changing Seasons In The High Knob High Country

Unseasonably warm and dry conditions will dominate the first day of racing on October 7, which will include all of the High Knob Hellbender 10K and the first day of Cloudsplitter races ( which extends through Sunday ).

Friday Night Into Saturday Morning

Partly-mostly clear ( high clouds possible ).  Becoming gusty higher elevations.  SSE-SSW winds increasing to 10-20 mph, with higher gusts, into the overnight-morning.  Temps from 40s in cooler mountain valleys ( sheltered from winds ) to mid-upper 50s to around 60 degrees on exposed middle-upper elevation mountain ridges and plateaus.

The race period is only now ( Oct 4 ) coming into range of high resolution forecast models; therefore, I will begin to update this through coming days with more details that will extend through the entire race periods.

Currently it is clear that a surge of unseasonably warm air will be felt through Saturday in advance of another change back into unseasonably cool conditions by middle portions of next week.

What is uncertain, and will have to be updated, is how will a developing tropical system in the Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico impact the mountains by Day 2 of the Cloudsplitter.  Stay tuned for updates as new data gets incorporated into forecast models during the next couple of days.