Weather Headlines
Unseasonable warmth continues
Next rain chance comes Thursday
A nice weekend is in store for us
Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Vlog
Unavailable today
Five-Day Forecast
Daily Forecast Summary
Today: Mostly sunny and warm. Breezy.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy. Continued warm. Breezy.
Thursday: A chance for afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms, becoming likely overnight. Breezy. Total rainfall around one inch.
Friday: Mostly cloudy, with a chance for showers.
Saturday: Mostly sunny and pleasant.
Meteorologist Mark’s 5-Day Wx Concerns
Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Discussion
It continues to look like the showers and storms with our Thursday system will behave themselves. We’ll be warm and humid, but we’re lacking some atmospheric ingredients for a severe weather situation. That’s not to say one or two storms might not get a bit rowdy, but widespread severe weather is not expected at all.
I should add that low humidity and breezy winds may make burning any brush outside a bit risky. Be careful if you must do that either today or tomorrow. We’re also slowly getting drier and drier. The bad news is that there aren’t any significant rain makers in sight. It looks like we’ll flirt with having just enough rain to keep us from drought conditions over the next several weeks. Make sure that garden hose reaches the flowers you’ve planted…..
Our next best chance for any stronger storms looks to come next Tuesday or Wednesday. Some signals for rough storms are already showing up in some of the guidance. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Almanac for Yesterday
On This Day in Wx History
A three-day historic tornado outbreak peaked on this day in 2011. The previous day, my storm chaser friend William Churchill and I ventured into Arkansas, on the Mississippi River Delta. The land is flat there and you can see forever! We intercepted two supercells, with the first suddenly pulling to the right and catching us in it’s destructive hail core. Supercells tend to pull to the right when rotation strengthens. I managed to find an old farm shed but only part of my car would fit under the roof. My car was very battered but we still had a windshield intact (busted, but intact), so we could still chase. The mirrors had been busted out but we could still drive without those.
The next day, a historic tornado outbreak took place that we may never see the likes of again in our lifetimes. Some of the most destructive tornadoes ever recorded scoured the ground across parts of Mississippi and Arkansas. It would be the deadliest tornado outbreak in the modern Doppler radar era. The storms were so fierce that in some instances even basements weren’t safe. One of those violent twisters even sent a pickup truck flying upside down and across the top of a water tower! The truck was found 1/2 mile away.
I was living in Mississippi and teaching at Mississippi State when this outbreak occurred. It was the first time in my life that tornadoes concerned me and made me question my well-being. One supercell tracked right over Starkville and many of us got in our cars and went south of town to see what horrific tornado might descend from those clouds and destroy the town that so many of us loved. Interestingly, that would be one of the only supercells to not produce a tornado in Mississippi that day! It would produce tornadoes in Alabama, however.
Our power went out at MSU and we were told it would be weeks before we would be with lights again. That was astonishing news for a university our size! A massive EF-5 tornado had taken down massive transmission lines to our north. Thankfully, with some ingenuity, TVA was able to figure out a way to get power to those of us in northern Mississippi within a day of the outbreak.
The outbreak continued into the 28th, spawning even more twisters across the eastern US.
54 Days until Summer
Yesterday’s National Temperature Extremes
High: 104° at Rio Grande Village, Texas
Low: 8° at Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Today’s Tennessee Weather
Abundant sunshine and warm southerly breezes will send unseasonably high temperatures into the 80s for the whole state. A few clouds may drift across our skies, especially across West Tennessee, but that will have little impact on high temperatures.
Map created by WeatherWX.com
Tonight’s Tennessee Weather
Clouds will increase for the state, with some showers and thundershowers possible for the western end of the state. Most everyone else stays dry. Overnight lows will be mild, with temps dropping to around 70 near the Mississippi River, to around 60 across East Tennessee.
Map created by WeatherWX.com
Tomorrow’s Tennessee Weather
Showers and thunderstorms will move in from the west as the day goes along. Otherwise, expect clouds to increase in coverage elsewhere. Southerly winds will pick up a bit ahead of this next storm system, as well. Daytime highs will once again be unseasonably warm, with highs in the 80s from one end of the state to the other.
Map created by WeatherWX.com
Today’s National Weather Map
Severe thunderstorms will threaten the southern plains. All modes of severe weather are possible. To the west of that threat area, warm and dry winds will fuel a wildfire danger from extreme western Texas to southeast Colorado. Heavy snow is likely for north central Colorado.
Drought Monitor
The drought monitor is updated each Thursday.
NASA Nerdology
The Mars helicopter has now flown three missions successfully! The third one sent the chopper rising to 16 feet and flying a distance of 164 feet at a speed of 6.6 feet per second! “Today’s flight was what we planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing,” said Dave Lavery, the project’s program executive for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With this flight, we are demonstrating critical capabilities that will enable the addition of an aerial dimension to future Mars missions.”
