Main Threats
(new section starting today)
Today= heavy rainfall
Friday Afternoon/evening= strong/severe t-storms
Saturday night= strong/severe t-storms
SUMMARY
Today, many of us will finally get the much-needed rain we have been looking for! Look for widespread showers and storms to overspread the plateau as we go through the day. There will be some embedded thunderstorms and some of those could become strong. However, widespread severe weather does not look too likely, especially since all this shower activity and cloud cover will keep temperatures down a bit. Plus, all this shower activity will work to keep the atmosphere a bit more stabilized than it would otherwise be. The main threat today is heavy rainfall.
On Friday, our atmosphere becomes a bit more unstable and that could lead to some strong to severe thunderstorms. Damaging winds and large hail will be the main threats, along with heavy rainfall within the storms. The greatest threat for strong storms looks to be in the afternoon and evening hours. Notice the slight risk (yellow) is to our south, where the greatest risk of severe weather will be.
Saturday still looks to be the driest day of the 5-day outlook, but Saturday night could get bumpy. A complex of showers and storms is expected to develop across the Midwest and push into our area late Saturday night. I’m still working on the timing, but right now it looks like it will push in after midnight. Stay tuned for adjustments with that timing, though. It most certainly looks as if the storms will hold off until after dark, so any daytime plans you have should not be affected by this complex of storms. However, you will still need to be mindful of the chance of an isolated shower or storm during the afternoon.
Sunday will once again feature scattered showers and storms, with some of those storms possibly being on the strong side. The storms become much more isolated in nature on Monday, as we return to more typical summer-like pattern.
Speaking of summer, today is the official start of summer! I have more on this in the discussion below, for those who are interested.
DISCUSSION
In meteorology, we do seasons in three-month increments, with June 1 being the first day of summer. Today is the astronomical first day of summer, when the sun has ventured as far north as it will ever venture, being directly over the Tropic of Cancer. That is the line of latitude located at 23.5 degrees north. That means that if you were standing there today the sun would be shining straight down on you and you would only cast a shadow between your feet.
I said the sun ventures that far north, but it’s actually the tilt of the earth that is causing the changes. The sun, of course, stays in its location all the time. After today, the tilt of the earth will start letting the sun gradually slip farther south and by September 21 (the first day of fall) the sun will be directly over the Equator. It will eventually end up as far south as the Tropical of Capricorn, located at 23.5 degrees South, by the first day of winter. That’s how the seasons are determined.
It is also interesting to note that we will have more daylight today than any other day of the year, though our clouds will have a say in that, too (ha). And after today, the days will gradually start getting shorter. We say the days get shorter but they are always 24 hours long. The proper thing to say is that the number of daylight hours get shorter.
I hope you all have a great day and that you get the rain many of us are really starting to need. So far, we’ve picked up a measly 0.04 inches for the day here at weatherTAP in downtown Crossville. That number will grow quite a bit as we go through the day.
As always, I will keep an eye on the storms for today and tomorrow, as well as that storm potential Saturday night.
It’s suppose to rain here for like the next week !!! No storms though, just a lot of rain 🙂 Which is alway good. It looks like hot next week and so it’s good we are getting all this rain. One thing I really hate is drought, so annoying. I pretty much spent my summer’s on a farm in Wisconsin and the rain is so important to the farmer’s. So sad when droughts happen.
I agree, Scarlett, droughts are awful! It sure looked like that was the direction we were headed before our rain today moved in. I think this will really help us out, though. My garden is getting very thirsty!