Main threats
Today: Possible isolated strong storms this afternoon and evening.
Summary
Today is a big day for me! All county officials who were elected in the August 2nd election will be sworn in today at 4:00 at the Old Courthouse. It should be quite the experience!
As for our weather, we’ll see scattered showers and storms again today. I expect it to be very similar to yesterday. Some folks had downpours yesterday, others of us didn’t even get enough to trip the rain gauge. Some of the storms this afternoon/evening could be strong, with gusty winds, heavy rainfall, and frequent lightning.
By this weekend, we slip back into a very summer-like pattern, with only isolated afternoon/evening storms possible. Most of us should stay dry. The humidity will be high, so it will feel a bit hotter than those mid 80s you see on the five-day outlook above.
That summer-like pattern will hold right on through our Labor Day holiday. The last holiday of the summer season will feel a whole like summer!
Discussion
There’s really not a whole lot to add here. The culprit for today’s showers and storms, as well as yesterday’s, is a weak, nearly washed-out frontal boundary that is trying to move through. It will fade out over TN and that will keep our weather unsettled for today.
Tropics
The tropics continue to look like they are waking up. We have a disturbance that we will watch very closely as it enters the Gulf over the next few days. That may even affect our weather at some point next week. Stay tuned.
We also have another disturbance way out in the Atlantic (“six”). It will likely become our next named storm. No worries, though. Models show this system moving north and out to sea over the next several days. What is worrisome is that there are several more disturbances behind this one that will certainly bear watching over the next one to two weeks. I’ll keep you posted! September is the peak of hurricane season.
Records
This is a record I meant to mention a couple of days ago but it is worth mentioning even now. Many of you have probably been enjoying the fair this week. I can tell you that the fair was in town on this date in 1990. Is my memory that awesome, you ask? Nope. It’s because that was the year the fair was in town for one of the worst hailstorms Crossville has ever experienced. Remember it?
By August 31, the fair was moving out. The hailstorm hit on the 29th. It wasn’t quite time for the fair to leave, but they were so damaged from the hail that they had to close early. Of all weeks to be in Crossville and they had to be here for that hailstorm. Hail broke nearly every light at the fair and shards of glass covered the ground. The hail was as large as softballs, with golfball being the most common size. As if that weren’t bad enough, the hail rode on wind gusts of up to 75 mph. Eleven people were injured.
What was very interesting is that there were numerous reports of hail in the shape of bricks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such hail reports since that, though there are other odd reports of weird-shaped hail that I’ve seen since.
The hail busted out car windshields and left downtown Crossville a mess. Leaves were stripped off trees and needles were stripped off pines. I remember seeing weeds on the sides of the roads that had been shredded. That was quite the storm for us, folks!
The storm was the southern-most storm to develop in association with a very strong late-August system that was swinging through the Ohio Valley. This same system actually produced a few tornadoes to our north with storms that developed there, but there was never a confirmed tornado with our hailstorm. Does that mean there wasn’t one? Absolutely not. Keep in mind that this was in 1991 and Doppler radar, along with improvements to that system, are much, much more sophisticated today and might have picked up on rotation a bit better that radars of the early 90s. Never the less, the main story was the hail and very strong straight-line winds.
Thankfully, we don’t have anything like that to worry about with today’s storms. We just don’t have the environment for large hail.
You all have a great day. Be sure and keep all of us elected officials in mind as we take on our various, new responsibilities. May we serve well and successfully. I think we can all say “amen” to that!