NASCAR At Atlanta: 2012 Weekend Schedule And Weather Forecast

Scattered showers and even a few thunderstorms are in the weather forecast for this weekend’s NASCAR races at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It appears it’s not a matter of “if” it will rain, but “when” it will rain this weekend.

Very warm and moist air will be in place all weekend long, and when you combine that with daytime heating from the sun, we get scattered showers and thunderstorms. But what do I mean when I use the word “scattered?”

Imagine you have a bag of marbles and you dump the marbles on the floor. What do the marbles do is they scatter all over the floor. You can’t predict where the marbles will land all you know is they will stop at random points on the floor. That’s similar to the rain showers we can expect this weekend: It’s hard to know where a rain shower will form, but if showers and storms start to form, then the threat of a shower or storm hitting the track increases and the radar needs to be watched.

The scenario this weekend doesn’t look like a washout for any of the races, but practices and qualifying have a chance of being cancelled because of rain. It will also be very warm and hot as highs Saturday and Sunday reach the upper 80s to low 90s.

FRIDAY:
10 a.m EDT
Truck Series Practice – Mostly cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 75
11:30 a.m EDT
Truck Series Final Practice – Mostly cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 82
2:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Series Practice – Mostly cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 84
4:35 p.m EDT
Truck Series Qualifying – Mostly cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 85
6:10 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Series Qualifying – Mostly cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 84
8 p.m EDT
Truck Series Race – Mostly cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 78

SATURDAY:
9:00 a.m EDT
Nationwide Series Final Practice – Patchy clouds, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 74
3:35 p.m EDT
Nationwide Series Qualifying – Sun and clouds, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 88
5:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Series Final Practice – Sun and clouds, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 87
7:00 p.m EDT
Nationwide Series Race – Mostly cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 78

SUNDAY:
5:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Series Pre-Race – Variably cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 86
6:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Series Pre-Race – Variably cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 84
7:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Series Race – Variably cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 84
8:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Series Race – Variably cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 81
9:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Series Race – Variably cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 79
10:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Series Race – Variably cloudy, chc. of scattered showers and storms – temp: 77