Right on cue, classic October weather is in place across the Tennessee Valley. Clear, cobalt skies with a northerly breeze, low humidity, and daytime temperatures in the 70s. That’s exactly what we have on the docket for today. Highs look to top out into the mid to upper 70s across the area, but one or two locations near Athens, Decatur, or the Muscle Shoals Airport and its warm sensor may briefly sneak into the lower 80s. Winds will still be in the 10 to 15 mph range today out of the north to northeast. Skies stay clear as we head through the overnight. Winds still stay up near 5 to 8 mph, and this will help us from dropping all the way down to the dewpoint for overnight lows. However, we do still expect widespread upper 40s by daybreak, and there certainly could be some isolated mid 40s in our naturally cooler spots.
The weather we have for today will stick around through the week as high pressure dominates the forecast for the local area. We may see a few more clouds in the sky om Wednesday from the far edges of Hurricane Milton, but those will shift back out going Wednesday night into Thursday. Daytime highs through the week look to stay in the mid to upper 70s with overnight lows down into the 40s. As is often the case in October, this is a dry weather pattern we have in place locally right now, and we don’t have any rain chances on the board for the next seven days. We look to get a little warmer late in the weekend, back into the lower 80s areawide, ahead of another cold front that’s scheduled for early next week. Early long range data suggests this may bring even cooler temperatures by the middle of next week than what we have in place now!
To the south, we continue to monitor powerful Hurricane Milton in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Milton is currently located just north of the Yucatan in the south-central Gulf. After reaching well into Category 5 intensity on Monday, Milton has undergone inner structure changes from an eyewall replacement cycle overnight, as well as likely ingested a bit of drier air from land over the Yucatan. This has “lowered” Milton’s intensity down to an upper-end Category 4 hurricane. Still, the environmental conditions surrounding Milton are highly favorable for a major hurricane, and it’s very possible that Milton may regain Category 5 status today as the structure reorganizes. Milton will likely fluctuate in the Category 4/Category 5 range for the next day or so before weakening a bit more on approach to the west coast of Florida on Wednesday as it moves northeastward and encounters increasing wind shear and some dry air upon approach to landfall. Still, that will do nothing to lessen the storm surge, and Milton is still expected to make landfall on the west coast of Florida, roughly near Tampa, as an upper-end Category 3 or possibly still a Category 4 during the nighttime on Wednesday. From there, Milton will cross Florida and move eastward out into the Atlantic and away from the United States, merging with the jet stream and becoming non-tropical. Outside of rip currents, Milton is NOT a threat to the northern Gulf Coast of Alabama or the panhandle part of Florida (Pensacola, Destin, Panama City, etc.,), Milton is NOT a threat to the Tennessee Valley, and Milton will NOT track near those areas of the Carolinas or eastern Tennessee that were devastated by Helene, regardless of what you may hear or read on the darker and more ignorant parts of social media and the internet…
