Weather Headlines
A BIG warming trend commences tomorrow!
Main threats
No significant threats in sight.
Baldwin’s Severe Wx Concern
Baldwin’s 7-Day forecast
Daily Forecast
Today: Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. The warm front is moving through.
Thursday: Much warmer! We could see an isolated shower or storm in the afternoon but that chance is slim.
Friday – Saturday: Warmer weather continues! Again, we have a slim chance for an afternoon shower or storm, but much of the plateau will be dry.
Sunday – Monday: We’ll see more warm weather but a bit of an increase in showers and storms, esp in the afternoon. Still, don’t cancel outdoor plans. Just keep an eye on the sky and radar.
Tuesday: Continued warm. The early summer-like pattern continues.
Almanac
Yesterday’s National High and Low Temperature
High: 99 at Rio Grande Village, Texas
Low: 12 at Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Difference of: 87 degrees
Today’s
Wx Hazards Across the Nation
Severe weather, some of it significant, is expected across the southern plains today. Elsewhere, unsettled weather will bring showers. A warm front is bringing a dramatic change of the air mass across the eastern US.
Tomorrow’s
Wx Hazards Across the Nation
The severe weather threat will stretch from the southern plains to the Midwest. Notice how it flows around the area of high pressure off the East Coast.
Tropics (time to bring this section back!)
Hurricane season officially begins June 1st, but we may see our first named storm before then. The red-hatched area has a 70% chance of developing a tropical system within the next five days. It is expected to stay offshore.
The map below shows where we might expect to see development in May, should it occur. Our potential storm is fitting the climatology pretty well.
As ocean waters continue to warm, we may see earlier development become more common. In recent years, we’ve seen May storms develop in 2012, 2015, 2016,2018, and 2019. In 2017, we saw a storm in April.
Records
On this day in 1962 the high temperature in Crossville hit 91 degrees. That established a new record high for the month of May for Crossville.
On this day in 1999 a hailstorm struck Crab Orchard. Marble to golfball-sized hail covered the ground to a depth of three inches. One resident measured seven inches of hail on the ground! Traffic on Interstate 40 was brought to a standstill, as half a dozen wreckers were sent to clear accidents. In addition. snow plows had to be used to clear the hail off the interstate. Traffic at one point was backed up 12 miles. Four injuries were reported.
Weather Trivia
Q: How many colors make up a rainbow?
a. three b. four c. five d. six e. seven
(Answer at the end of the blog!)
NASA News
This is a cool, short video by NASA showing how they recently upgraded the Cold Atom Lab on the International Space Station. It’s pretty cool to watch! The older kids at home may enjoy this too.
Long Range Outlook
Extended outlooks continue to paint a hot and dry picture for much of the US, including the plateau. Let’s just hope we don’t flip to hot-n-dry too suddenly!
Temperature
Precipitation
7-Day Projected Precip Totals
Much of the heavier rain will flow around our area of strong high pressure in the Southeast.
Baldwin’s View-of-the-Day
This was from three years ago in Oklahoma. I title it, “Redneck Hail Storm”. (HA!)
Also, this what you don’t do during hail. lol
Weather News
I had a wonderful time Monday evening helping Boy Scout Troop 108 earn their weather merit badges! Due to responsible social distancing, we used the Zoom app to meet. It was my first experience with Zoom and it worked out great! There’s no substitution for meeting in person, but Zoom is a great second option.
This is the same class I teach at Tennessee Tech during Merit Badge Academy. I love talking to the scouts about weather and emphasizing how very important it is to always be aware of the weather.
Answer to Trivia Question
A: (e) A rainbow consists of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Many people remember this color scheme by the acronym ROY G BIV, created by using the first letter of each of those colors.
A rainbow is created when the white light from the sun is bent and split as it passes through a raindrop (acts as a prism). The white light is split into the seven visible colors of the spectrum. A rainbow can only form if the sun is behind you and the rain is in front of you.
You all have a great day!
ROY G BIV is a mnenomic.
I meant mnemonic.