It was a chilly start to this morning across the Tennessee Valley. With the exception of the “warm” spot in Columbia, TN where they only got down to 30 degrees, most of us were in the low to mid 20s this morning. Locations immediately south of the Tennessee River, as expected, were a little closer to the upper 20s. This was caused by the light northerly fetch of wind off the milder water of the river. With wall to wall sunshine, temperatures have rebounded but only into the mid to upper 40s this afternoon.
Temperatures are topping out about where they will for today’s highs, and then we will fall back into the 30s by early evening and once again into the 20s for overnight lows. We expect widespread lower 20s tonight over southern middle Tennessee and low to mid 20s over northwest Alabama into northeast Mississippi. Skies are expected to stay clear for the rest of today and tonight.
Skies stay mostly sunny for a large part of Wednesday. However, high pressure eventually shifts eastward, and clouds begin increasing Wednesday night into Thursday. This is ahead of the next storm system that looks to bring widespread rain to the area Thursday night into early Friday. We can’t rule out a stray rumble of thunder, but no severe storms are expected. Gradient winds may gust into the 20 to 30 mph range. Rain showers shift east of the area during the morning Friday, and we may even see a little bit of sunshine by the afternoon!
This is one of two main chances of rain for the next several days. A second system moves into the area later Saturday. That brings rain chances that continue through Sunday into Monday. Expected rainfall totals for the next seven days have unfortunately come down a bit though, with our area now expected to range between a half inch and inch and a half through early next week.
After our cold temperatures tonight, we start seeing a moderating trend. High temps will be into the mid to upper 50s Wednesday and Thursday. We’re into the 60s for Friday through the weekend, and morning lows will even be into the 40s. It does look like slightly cooler air starts moving back in early next week though, with highs returning to the mid to upper 50s.
