Another stormy day

Main threats

TODAY: Strong storms are once again possible today, with gusty winds and heavy downpours. Storms should stay below severe limits, but that will be monitored.

SATURDAY MORNING: There is a slight chance for some strong storms early in the morning as a dying complex of storms moves in from the northwest. Monitoring.

Summary

After a stormy night, we’re in for more storms today. For the most part, storms should behave themselves, but until the cold front passes later today we can’t rule out some hefty storms firing up from time to time. That cold front is still back toward the Mississippi River. Notice on the radar image below that more storms are already firing off across northern West and Middle TN. (WeatherTAP RadarLab image from 8:11 a.m.)

By Friday, we’ll be affected by a warm front lifting north. This is the front that we have passing through this evening, returning as a warm front. This could set of an isolated shower or storm, but that activity should stay isolated. I hesitated to add this chance to the 7-day outlook, but with our unstable airmass it won’t take much to set off an isolated shower or storm.

We’ll have to be mindful of a complex of storms that will move in early Saturday morning. Right now, we are not under any outlook by the Storm Prediction Center for this but it is close. The thought is that the complex of storms will be dying out by the time it reaches us early Saturday morning. Notice below how the convective outlook reaches the slight risk toward us. This is for that storm complex that will be moving southeast out of the plains.

This complex of storms may clear the way for a decent Saturday afternoon/evening. Still, I can’t rule out an isolated afternoon shower or storm.

Rain chances try to tick back up for Sunday, with more scattered showers and storms. Those will likely increase in coverage for Monday, before rain chances drop off again for Tuesday.

If we keep our fingers crossed, Wednesday might actually be dry!

WeatherTAP WeatherFACT

Most of the time, lightning originates from a thunderstorm’s dark underside, along with the rain and wind. However, sometimes lightning comes from the anvil of the storm. That anvil may spread out across the sky for many miles from the storm. This form of lightning is thankfully rare, but it’s especially deadly in two ways. First of all, it appears to come from nowhere (aka. “bolt from the blue”) and it’s many times more powerful than a normal strike that comes from a storm’s dark underbelly.

The bolt is more powerful because it has to be more powerful in order to travel through as much air as it does before hitting the ground. Air is an insulator and overcoming that can take quite the power. Sometimes you’ll see lightning spread out across the sky as it follows the anvil. That form of lightning is safe to those of us on the ground. It’s when it reaches for the ground that we get into trouble.

Pictured below is an example of how this lightning occurs. These bolts have been know to travel more than 30 miles from the parent t-storm. I’ll have more on lightning is tomorrow’s blog!

Records

Many of you, especially the bigger weather nerds amongst us, recall the story of a farmer in Kansas who apparently saw the inside of a tornado and lived to tell about it. Well, that story took place on this day in 1928. This actually occurred in Greensburg, Kansas, where the big EF-5 tornado hit in 2007 and nearly wiped the whole town off the map.

The tornado of 1928 was much less aggressive, but don’t try telling that to the farmer who looked inside of it! He described the walls of rotating clouds as being lit with constant flashes of lightning and a strong gassy odor with a screaming, hissing sound.

There have been stories passed down through the ages of tornadoes producing a sulfurous odor, which led many to believe that tornadoes were associated with the devil.

Almanac

Yesterday’s record high: 89 (1994)

Yesterday’s record low: 45 (1965)

Today’s record high: 90 (1990)

Today’s record low: 48 (1985)

Today’s sunset: 7:59

Tomorrow sunrise: 5:23

**Today’s day length: 14 hrs 36 mins 12 secs

**Tomorrow’s day length: 14 hrs 36 mins 12 secs

**NOTE: The length of day is the same for both today and Friday. Then, on Saturday the day’s begin getting shorter. Don’t worry, though, Saturday will only be four seconds shorter than Friday. Still, it’s the beginning of shorter days. 

One year ago today

It rained a tenth of an inch of rain at the airport. The high reached a warm 84 degrees, after a morning low of 67.

News

A team of explorers, sponsored by National Geographic, has successfully placed a weather station on the top of Mt. Everest! This is now the highest weather station in the world. The data from this thing will likely be very interesting….

For more info, please see the story at this link https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2019/06/13/everest-expedition-breaks-record-with-installation-of-the-worlds-highest-operating-weather-stations/?fbclid=IwAR0CD0SV7RnhFRqnHF0MYUR0UUYtA4py8tQr6Tkx6Nd8mKsiFcy-YijmBP0

In other news….

NASA and SpaceX test-fired the Falcon Heavy rocket yesterday and everything went well! That means that, as of now, the launch is on schedule for Monday night at 10:30. Fingers crossed that all goes well from here on out!

And yes, it’s starting to feel real……

You all have a great day!