Meteorologist Mark

If you were needing rain, this is your week! The radar shows that we will not be hard pressed for showers and storms today, so if you have to head out for anything be sure and take that umbrella. Every day this week brings a good chance of showers and storms. Those showers will keep our temps below normal limits, with highs each day in the mid to upper 70s. Lows at night will fall into the low to mid 60s. The driest day of the week looks to be tomorrow, but we still can’t rule out an isolated shower or storm.  Rain chances continue right on through the weekend. The good news is that we aren’t expecting any widespread severe weather this week, just showers and typical summer-time storms. Just always be mindful of that lightning!

The tropics have heated up a bit this morning, with a new tropical storm that has been named Franklin. It will hang out in the Caribbean before making landfall in Mexico and then heading back into the Gulf of Mexico. The storm should then hit the east coast of Mexico as a strong tropical storm or weak hurricane. We’re still watching a disturbance farther out in the Atlantic. It doesn’t look to develop into anything of concern until later this week and into the weekend. I’ll keep an eye on it!

I was looking at the records for today and we had better be thankful that this isn’t August of 1930! That was a scorcher of a month! In fact, during this week of 1930 Middle TN had one of the worst heat waves we’ve ever had. Even places on the plateau were in the 100-105 degree range! Nashville hit 111 degrees! That was one hot week and a far cry from what we’ll see this week!

AS you can see by the radar below, we have showers/storms to our west and to our south. All are moving our way for the overnight hours. Rain will continue on Monday. Storms are expected to remain below severe levels, though gusty winds and heavy downpours are possible.  The week looks wet, with Tuesday being the driest day. Temps will also be below normal, mostly due to the clouds and showers.

We’re still keeping an eye on the tropics, though there’s really nothing new to report today. That will change soon. I’ll keep you posted.

Today will be very similar to yesterday, weather-wise. We’ll see highs near 80 and an isolated shower/storm. On Friday we’ll start to see the influence of a strong cold front that will be approaching. It now looks like most of the day may be dry, with only isolated showers/storms. However, as we get closer to the evening hours the shower and storm chances increase. A few storms could be strong but widespread severe weather is not expected. Saturday still looks awesome, with highs in the mid 70s and super low humidity. It may even feel a bit chilly Sunday morning! On Sunday, the pattern starts to change and we may have to deal with some clouds and showers. Next week looks to be below normal with temps and above normal with rainfall.

We’re keeping an eye on a system that just came off the coast of Africa. It has a very good chance of becoming a tropical storm over the next week. I’ll keep an eye on it.

Wish me luck at Memphis Air Traffic Control today! I’m so excited! I’m sure I’ll have lots to tell!

We’re still on track for a beautiful Saturday. Highs will be in the mid 70s, with super low humidity. We may even be in the 50s for lows both Saturday and Sunday morning. But first, today looks to be a carbon copy of yesterday. Highs will be near 80 and there’s a very slight chance for an afternoon storm. Repeat the same forecast for Thursday. By Friday, a strong cold front moves in and storm chances will increase as the day goes along. I think the first half of the day will be fine, with a much greater chance of storms coming Friday evening. Models are suggesting that the storms Friday evening will have the potential to be strong, but severe weather does not look to be an issue, as of now. I’ll keep a watch on it, though.

After a beautiful Saturday, Sunday looks a bit wetter with each new model run. I’d definitely do my outdoor plans on Saturday and not Sunday. Sunday doesn’t look to be a washout, by any means, but there will certainly be some showers around.  Next week continues to look mild and wet with off-and-on chances of rain each day and highs around 80.

Tomorrow I get to visit the Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC)! I get to sit in on a shift and watch how the meteorologists work with air traffic control. I was invited after I attended a conference there  few weeks ago about weather’s impact on aviation. I was invited to come back and sit in a shift and I quickly accepted! The Memphis ARTCC services the air space within the blue area within the area that has a ‘star’ for Memphis. They cover the air space all the way to Cookeville. Crossville is covered by the Atlanta ARTCC. If you have any questions for these folks, just let me know! Hopefully, we’ll get at least an isolated storm  in the air space so I can watch the planes be diverted around it. I’ll let you all know how this goes and what I learn! Oh, and if you hear of any aviation conundrum within that area tomorrow, I didn’t do it! 🙂