Weather Headlines
Unsettled pattern continues
Main threats
Saturday: Strong thunderstorms are once again possible across the plateau. Small hail and gusty winds appear to be the main threat. The Storm Prediction Center has outlined our area in the marginal risk. I’ll keep an eye on this and update later this evening on this situation.
Baldwin’s 7-Day forecast
Daily Forecast
Today: Look for skies to gradually become partly cloudy. Hopefully we’ll see some sun before sunset.
Saturday: More rain and storms return. Some storms could be strong, or even severe. Winds will be quite breezy, even outside of storms.
Sunday: Clouds and showers should stick around for much of the day.
Monday – Tuesday: Partly cloudy skies. Very pleasant.
Wednesday: Rain and storms return. It’s too early to know if they will pose a severe threat. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Thursday: Rain should move out by daybreak but clouds may be stubborn to leave.
Almanac
Wx Hazards Across the Nation
Two areas of severe weather can be found today, with the one area across the southern plains and the other across central Florida. The southern plains area is the more substantial threat, with giant hail possible and an isolated tornado.
Yesterday’s National High and Low Temperature
High: 106 degrees at Falcon Lake, Texas
Low: -2 at Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Difference of: 108 degrees
Records
One person was killed in Cumberland County on this day in 1975 when an F-2 tornado destroyed the trailer they were in. There were four injuries reported. The tornado was on the ground in the Mayland community for two miles. The destruction of a brick home nearly caused the NWS to give this tornado an F-3 rating.
This tornado occurred just a little over a year after the Super Outbreak of 1974 produced an F-3 in northern Cumberland County that trekked down Plateau Road, destroying numerous homes and injuring 28 people.
Weather Trivia
Q: Only about __% of all US tornadoes are EF-3 or stronger, yet they account for nearly all the tornado deaths in the US each year.
a. 1 b. 6 c. 9 d. 13
(Answer at the end of the blog!)
NASA Knowledge
The blue speckled you see in the image below are clusters of young stars that emit hot, blue tinged radiation as they burn up their fuel. The orange colors are older stars that have cooled. Some of those were never that hot to begin with. Cooler temperatures emit a more reddish colored radiation.
This image of NGC 2906 was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3, an instrument installed on Hubble in 2009 during the telescope’s final servicing mission. Hubble observed this galaxy on the hunt for fading light from recent occurrences of stellar explosions known as supernovae.
Long Range Outlook
The period of April 29 through May 3 continues to favor below normal temps and normal to above normal rainfall for our area.
Temperature
Precipitation
Baldwin’s View-of-the-Day
This is a satellite view from yesterday of the island of Cuba. Each day, seabreezes from each coast converge in the middle of the island. With the help of some topography…..BOOM! …a t-storm erupts somewhere along the convergence. Pretty darn cool to watch from space, right?
(Thanks to my friend William Churchill at the NWS Key West for this video)
Weather News
I’ve had some folks request that I create an app for my weather stuff. I’m looking into this but initial inquiries are looking like an app is super expensive…..like, 100,000 dollars expensive! But, I may be able to get a free plug-in for the blog that will notify your phone, desktop, etc when I update the blog. I’ll keep looking into this. I may be able to get students at Roane State or Tech to design an app. I’ll investigate further.
Answer to Trivia Question
A: (b) Only about six percent of all US tornadoes are strong/violent enough to be rated EF-3 or stronger. Never the less, these tornadoes account for nearly 75% of all the tornado deaths each year in our country.
You all have a great day!
What is the timing for storms tomorrow for crossville and rockwood? Like what time will it be cleared out…. we’re supposed to pick up groceries and I don’t want to be driving to and from rockwood in storms. Thanks 🙂
I think they will be over by 6:00, Jenn. But, stay tuned tomorrow for timing updates.