All eyes on Augusta heading into a rainy weekend

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - With rains chances high over the weekend, we spoke with our First Alert Weather team about what we can expect and how they are preparing.

Augusta is seeing green, and it’s not the green we’re expecting. Our First Alert Weather team is watching things closely. We took a look behind the scenes at what goes into getting out the best and most accurate forecast.

“Hopefully, as long as it doesn’t necessarily get too heavy of rain, they may allow players to play out there this weekend. We should be completely dry by Sunday. Sunday is looking a lot better,” said First Alert Chief Meteorologist Riley Hale.

All eyes are on the forecast.

“You feel the pressure a little bit more. But I mean, every day, we go into it and want to be accurate and get the forecast right. That aspect of the job hasn’t really changed too much,” he said.

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What goes into pushing out the best and most accurate forecast?

“You can look at a dozen different weather models each day and each one tells you something a little bit different. It’s just a lot of analysis and just kind of going with your gut sometimes too,” said Hale.

And preparing for anything.

“Big thing about forecasting, especially whenever you have thunderstorms, is prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” he said.

Because forecasting is not as simple as we may think.

“People are just looking for the smallest scale forecasts. They want to know what’s happening right above their head and the exact timeframe. Forecasting doesn’t always work like that sometimes,” he said. “I think the biggest thing is just having grace.”

And patience because we are all on edge watching the rain.

“Right now, I’m kind of optimistic because as far as Saturday goes, we’re expecting a lot of rain. It’s the rate of rain that I think could be a problem,” he said.

Rain chances are there, but what are the chances of a Masters Monday?

“It is possible though. As far as the chance we have a Monday Masters, I put about 30% chance,” said Hale.

We are likely to see more cars on the roads over the weekend and with course delays and people leaving, things can get crazy. Follow the signs and directions of the officers out on the roads.

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