A nice start to our Weekend so far has fortunately graced the Tennessee Valley – now, we have still been cool, with our highs today getting into the mid-upper 50s, but that is certainly manageable for this time of year, especially given that we’ve gotten rid of that chilly wind that made the last few days so much colder feeling. Better yet, the next couple days will continue this trend of nice weather – but not before another night of 30s. Our North Alabama counties have a Frost Advisory for the early morning hours, but signs aren’t pointing to some big, widespread freeze tonight. Still, though, if you have plants you want to protect (and, of course, pets), go ahead and take them inside just in case.
Wrapping our Weekend up, Sunday looks even better than today as far as temperatures are concerned. We keep those skies mostly clear (with only a few clouds filtering in), and we warm back up to the mid 60s on average, though a few of us will probably flirt with the idea of upper 60s especially along the river. The main reason for this, as is often the case, is that we’re getting that more humid air coming out of the south, from the Gulf of Mexico, providing some moisture in the atmosphere and helping pave the way for this temporary warming trend that lasts through Monday.
Monday is the pinnacle of this temporary warming trend with daytime highs in the lower 70s, but this comes just as the next cold front passage swings through the Tennessee Valley. Current model indications suggest that Monday morning and afternoon will likely not be when the rain moves in. Rather, this front brings shower and rain activity after sunset, and it’s out before sunrise (really, there is only about a 3-5 hour window of any meaningful shower activity in the Monday overnight timeframe – don’t expect any notable accumulations or big-time rainfall from this.)
This front makes itself known especially on Tuesday, which looks like a pretty nice day, but is certainly much cooler, much closer to the kind of temperatures we’ve seen today as opposed to those more mild 60s and 70s of Sunday and Monday. Tuesday marks a sort of transition period as well, when it comes to the forecast, in the sense that it lies between our two next rain chances.
Indeed, by Wednesday, our next system (this time featuring Thunderstorm chances) moves into the Tennessee Valley. We’re going to need to get a bit closer before we can tell you very specific information about the timing and strength of the system as a whole, but what can be said about this system is that 1.), it’s likely to be the more widespread rain event, featuring heavy downpours at times, and 2.), this system has more atmospheric energy to work with, so a few strong storms are possible in the timeframe of Wednesday night, perhaps into Thursday morning. Again, we can only give a window of time here as opposed to specifics, but we’ll be keeping tabs on this system as we approach the midweek so that you can have the best info possible for your Thanksgiving. If nothing else, it sure looks like Black Friday is going to be MUCH cooler, with highs only in the 40s and clearer skies behind the cold front once the unsettled weather moves out of here.
All and all, we’re on a bit of a roller-coaster ride as far as temperatures go, with us going from 60s, to 70s, to 50s, to 60s, to 40s all in a span of a week… but that is the consequence of active patterns for you! As mentioned, we’ll watch the forecast very closely to monitor for trends and changes, but the time to watch for the more robust rain and storm chances is Wednesday PM, and into Thursday… so don’t take the decent end to our Weekend we have for tomorrow for granted. You never know what you’ll get in November down here!
