Meteorologist Mark

Are you starting to wonder when we’ll ever have a two or three-day streak of dry days? Me too. It sure isn’t going to happen this week. Rain and storm chances will be with us through Friday. Highs each day will be in the lower 80s. Humidity will be high, too, so keep that in mind if you’re outside working or exercising. I’m keeping my eye on a big complex of showers and storms in Arkansas this morning. Guess where it’s heading? If it holds together it should be arriving this evening sometime.  Even if it doesn’t hold together, remnants from it will likely generate new showers/storms.

The tropics continue to show signs of increasing activity. We have a hurricane and three disturbances to watch! I’ll keep an eye on all of them and let you know as soon as any look to be a threat to the US.  Look how active that map is getting! Notice that they’re all pointing in the direction of the US. Hopefully, that will change as we go through time. It’s been 12 years since the US had a major hurricane make landfall.

I have some very exciting news to share this morning.  I’ve been invited by the Fentress Courier to write a weekly article for them about the weather! It’s a small paper, but I’m anxious to see where this goes. I appreciate all of you who have suggested I write more and for complimenting me on my weather tid-bits that I get to share with you here.  I’m looking forward to seeing how the readers of the Courier like my weather stories. My first article publishes on Aug 23. I’ll let you know how it goes!

By the way, the models are looking better for the eclipse. It still looks trivial, with a slight chance of storms and partly cloudy skies, but it looks a bit better to me this morning. I’ll keep you posted!

For the third week in a row, we remain locked into a very unsettled weather pattern. We’re already seeing numerous showers and storms to our southwest that will be moving in within the next couple of hours. If you plan on going out for lunch, you better prepare for rain.

Showers and storms will continue off-and-on tomorrow, though they should be less widespread than today. Wednesday looks to be the driest day of the week , but we still can’t rule out a stray shower or storm. Rain chances tick back up for Thursday and those chances will remain with us, at about 50% coverage, through Friday. Right now, the weekend looks a bit drier but it’s a bit too far out to know anything for sure.

We’re now a week away from the eclipse! Models are looking a bit better for that day now. It looks like we may get a break just in time to see the eclipse. I’ll keep you posted as we go through the week. Fingers crossed!

Yesterday, Tropical Storm Gert formed in the Atlantic. The storm is expected to become a hurricane tomorrow, though it will stay out to sea and not affect the US. We will soon have yet another tropical storm (it’s that time of year!) and it will need to be watched. Currently, it’s just a disturbance off the coast of Africa but all models steer it into the Caribbean by next weekend. I’ll keep an eye on it!

We’re coming up on some significant hurricane anniversaries. The last two weeks of August and the first two weeks of September are notorious for historical landfalls. I’ll share those as we come to them. There are some incredible stories from these storms, and you’ll wonder why anyone would ever live on the coast.

You all have a great day and try to stay dry!

Get out and enjoy this nice weather today, because it certainly looks like it will be the nicest day over the next week to ten days. It’ll still be humid out there, but you will have the least chance of a shower or storm today. Rain and storm chances will be with us ever day this week.  If you missed seeing any meteors last night, you should try again tonight. Hopefully the clouds won’t hinder viewing but I wouldn’t count on it. We now have a new tropical depression out in the Atlantic. It will become Tropical Storm Gert sometime this afternoon or evening but should stay out to sea. I have a graph below that shows that. Have a great Sunday and be sure and stay cool out there. It’s easy to get too hot when the humidity is high.

Don’t forget to look for the Perseid Meteor shower tonight! These pesky clouds should begin to break up and even clear out after dark. You will have to deal with a bit of a bright moon, but you will still be able to see some meteors. The meteor shower peaks toward the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, but they’ll be flying all night. In fact, you’ll still be able to see some on clear nights for another couple of weeks, becoming fewer with time. This is one of the best meteor showers of the year, so get out and look up! I’ve seen as many as 200 of these during a Perseid meteor shower several years ago, but I was in the Smokies where we had rented a cabin, and where it was VERY dark (VERY dark! ha). Look for dark places, away from lights. Give your eyes time to adjust to the darkness, too. That can make a big difference. Below is a current weatherTAP visible satellite image of TN. The clouds over Illinois and Indiana are moving south behind the front. They represent the point at which drier air comes in. Those cumulus clouds that are lined up from north to south will disappear after the sunsets, since they’re generated by heat from the sun. In fact, a lot of the clouds you see in this image are driven by the heat of the day and will collapse at sunset.  Good luck and I hope you see more meteors than you can count! 🙂