SUMMARY
This morning’s drizzle and fog should clear up a bit as we go through the day, but the clouds will certainly stick around. Our next system moves in tonight and Wednesday. Some heavy downpours are possible, along with some rumbles of thunder. Flooding is not expected to be a widespread problem, but some localized flooding is possible. Showers linger into Thursday morning and we could see a peak or two of sun Thursday afternoon, but I wouldn’t bet on it. If we can see just a little sun, we’ll go to 70 degrees. If you want to feel real warm, spring-like weather just head west to Nashville Thursday. Highs there should reach into the mid 70s! This warm jolt to the temps comes just ahead of yet another storm system that will bring more rain on Friday and Friday night. Showers should move out Saturday morning, but it’s too early to tell if Saturday afternoon will be dry or not before the next rain system moves in for Sunday and Monday. If you ever wondered what living in Seattle must be like, well, now you know!
Below is a map of the national radar. Our showers/storms for tonight and tomorrow will be developing to our southwest today, moving northeast.
DISCUSSION
I guess the bright side to all this cloudy weather is that we’re not bitter cold. Chilly, yes, but not bitter cold. And thank goodness we’ve been warm enough for most of the precip to be plain rain! My Lord, we’d be up to our eyeballs in snow right snow, folks! I’m 6’3″ and I’d be up to my waist in snow if all this weekend’s rain had been snow!
The system coming in here Wednesday may bring us some thunderstorms. It doesn’t look like things are going to line up for severe weather, but we could certainly hear some thunder.
I didn’t put the wind symbol on Thursday, but I may have to add that tomorrow. Winds could get quite gusty as we warm into the 60s. The next storm system blowing in for Friday may pull up some rather robust breezes ahead of it. With our saturated ground, we have to be mindful of any wind, as they could topple loosely rooted trees that are sitting in mud.
There are now indications that our warm and mild weather will come to an end at the beginning of March. You know what they say about March….in like a lion and out like a lamb. This pattern is causing a lot of cold air to stay bottled up just to our north. That air mass is dying to make another dive south and it looks like the flood gates for that may swing wide open the first week of March. It will be interesting to see if any moisture can meet up with that. Snow birds, start doing your snow dance! (ha)
Some records for this date include all-time record lows set in McMinnville (-26) and Byrdstown (-19) in 1899. On the complete flip side of that, on this day in 1952 a violent and deadly F-4 tornado ripped through southern Middle TN. A total of 109 farms were damaged or completely destroyed, and four people lost their lives in the storm. On this day in 1962, both Crossville and Nashville set their warmest February readings on record, at 79 and 84, respectively. So, you can either be breaking all-time record highs or all-time record lows this time of year!
That’s what you start noticing with records at this time of year. Record cold, flooding, tornadoes, snowstorm, etc. You can tell this is when the seasons want to start changing. Sometimes it’s a peaceful transition, and sometimes it’s not. It’ll be interesting to see how we transition back to winter when this next cold spell hits the first of March. Then, we’ll transition back into a spring pattern. I’ll keep an eye on it all and let you know as soon as I spot weather troubles!
Below is a map of this morning’s temperatures across the country. Notice the colder air isn’t all that far away. The white line is the freezing line (32 degrees), with everyone north of the line being below freezing. I’ve also circled all the folks below zero this morning.
You all have a great day! You know, these clouds aren’t all that bad, really. As we say in meteorology, “Give us anything but a sunny day!” Actually, sunshine is alright with me as long as it’s working to destabilize the atmosphere for t-storms. Sunshine is just so boring, right? Right? (insert the sound of crickets)
Ok,ok,ok … for those of you who are weird and really want sunshine, I’ll share with you this nice pic of it. I hope it makes you feel better! 🙂
