And you (and I) thought summer was truly here already..not quite yet! A true cool front that brought some strong winds across northern Middle Tennessee yesterday afternoon, is sending some much drier air in our direction. One way to gauge this is what we call the dewpoint. It’s a measure of moisture in the air put to the Fahrenheit scale. Here’s in general what the numbers mean…

When dewpoints are in the:

70’s-extremely tropical, very uncomfortable
60’s-somewhat comfortable
50’s-pleasant
30’s & 40’s-extremely comfortable & dry

I know that we have a history in the United States of showing the relative humidity more often than dewpoint, but here’s why the dewpoint is more useful to you and me. The relative humidity percentage goes up every night and down every afternoon. There’s no consistancy, so it doesn’t quite tell us as much as the dewpoint. On the other hand, the dewpoint temperature moves up and down not with the time of day but with approaching and departing storm systems. It can not only tell us how comfortable it is outside, but can help us predict overnight lows and the chance of thunderstorms with a particular airmass. The major hurdle is to educate the non weather geeks of the world to understand that the dewpoint is more useful for a gauge for human comfort.

An out of this world encounter tonight after sunset: The Moon and Jupiter will be incrediably close…here’s the skymap:
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2005/15jun05/skymap_north.gif

This tree fell on a mobile home and car in Springfield in Robertson Co.

Trees down in the Portland area in Sumner Co.

There were reports of trees down from Robertson County eastward to the northeast corner of Middle Tennessee. Southern Overton county reported numerous trees down. There was a tornado warning for that area earlier this evening.

All of this was north and east of Nashville.

The good news? The storms are gone, and we are looking for drier weather with lower temperatures to filter in day by day into the weekend. See the 7 Day Forecast above.

Here are some of the storm reports from the National Weather Service

000
NWUS54 KOHX 150106
LSROHX

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT…CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NASHVILLE TN
806 PM CDT TUE JUN 14 2005

..TIME… …EVENT… …CITY LOCATION… …LAT.LON…
..DATE… ….MAG…. ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. …SOURCE….
..REMARKS..

0115 PM TSTM WND DMG SPRINGFIELD 36.50N 86.88W
06/14/2005 ROBERTSON TN PUBLIC

20TH AVE TREE DOWN ACROSS TRAILER AND CAR

0248 PM TSTM WND DMG 10 N GALLATIN 36.52N 86.45W
06/14/2005 SUMNER TN EMERGENCY MNGR

NUMEROUS TREE DOWN AND ROOF BLOWN OFF HOUSE

0330 PM TSTM WND DMG 5 S LAFAYETTE 36.45N 86.03W
06/14/2005 MACON TN LAW ENFORCEMENT

TREES DOWN NEAR THE SUN DAIL AREA AND LONG CREEK ROAD

0348 PM TSTM WND DMG 11 NW GAINESBORO 36.47N 85.79W
06/14/2005 JACKSON TN LAW ENFORCEMENT

SHERIFFS OFFICE REPORTED A TREE DOWN ON HIGHWAY 151.

0405 PM TSTM WND DMG CELINA 36.55N 85.50W
06/14/2005 CLAY TN LAW ENFORCEMENT

SHERIFFS OFFICE REPORTED A FEW TREES DOWN IN CELINA ON
MCCORMICK RIDGE RD.

0430 PM TSTM WND DMG BYRDSTOWN 36.57N 85.13W
06/14/2005 PICKETT TN LAW ENFORCEMENT

SHERIFFS OFFICE REPORTED SMALL TREE DOWN ON CLARK
MOUNTAIN RD.

0434 PM TSTM WND DMG 4 NE BYRDSTOWN 36.61N 85.08W
06/14/2005 PICKETT TN AIRPLANE PILOT

SHERIFFS OFFICE REPORTED SMALL TREE DOWN AT STATIC.

0545 PM HAIL GAINESBORO 36.36N 85.65W
06/14/2005 0.75 INCH JACKSON TN LAW ENFORCEMENT

SHERIFFS OFFICE REPORTED PENNY SIZE HAIL.

0609 PM TSTM WND DMG 9 SW LIVINGSTON 36.30N 85.44W
06/14/2005 OVERTON TN LAW ENFORCEMENT

NUMEROUS REPORTS OF TREES BLOWN DOWN BEGINNING AROUND 609
PM CDT THROUGH ABOUT 625 PM CDT OVER SOUTH PART OF
COUNTY.

0610 PM TSTM WND DMG 9 SSW LIVINGSTON 36.27N 85.39W
06/14/2005 OVERTON TN TRAINED SPOTTER

ROOF DAMAGE TO HOME IN RICKMAN

0645 PM TSTM WND DMG 17 SSW JAMESTOWN 36.20N 85.05W
06/14/2005 FENTRESS TN TRAINED SPOTTER

SPOTTER REPORTED LARGE TREE LIMBS DOWN AT CLARKRANGE.

0650 PM TSTM WND DMG 11 SSW JAMESTOWN 36.28N 85.01W
06/14/2005 FENTRESS TN TRAINED SPOTTER

LARGE TREE LIMBS BLOWN DOWN AT GRIMSLEY.

0706 PM TSTM WND DMG FAIRFIELD GLADE 36.00N 84.90W
06/14/2005 CUMBERLAND TN LAW ENFORCEMENT

911 CENTER REPORTED A TREE WAS BLOWN DOWN.

&&

$$

ORCHANIAN

By the way, check out the New Nashville Weather Channel on Comcast Digital Cable Channel 185. In less than 5 minutes you get Stormtracker, regional radar, local temperatures, City Cams, and the 7 Day Forecast, along with a briefing from the members of the News 2 Storm Team.

Rush hour in Nashville is looking better, weatherwise.
The storm activity during the early evening hours will be in the eastern sections of Middle Tennessee until 7pm. The National Weather Service has dropped the watch for most counties west of Nashville.

Earlier there was storm damage in Robertson and Sumner Counties. In Springfield, a tree fell on a mobile home and a car. Luckily, no one was injured. Large trees also were blown over in pars of Sumner county like Portland and Cross Plains.

I love that phrase about as much as I love “It’s a dry heat!”

But looking at our 7 day forecast it is actually the humidity change that’s going to be the focus. A rare cool front for this time of year will push into all the “Arlene” humidity leftover from the weekend and give us a chance of storms this afternoon. Here’s the Storm Prediction Center’s outlook for today which has us under “slight risk” of severe weather:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html

As Davis mentioned below, this type of weather scenario is perfect for the “Nashville Weather Channel.” You can get a live look at Stormtracker every few minutes along with our updated 7 day forecast! It is Comcast digital cable channel 185. Just one more service we provide!

This NASA project is one of a kind! The mission is called “Deep Impact.” Launched in January a rocket is being sent to Comet Temple 1 to create a space-type fireworks display right on July 4th. The reason: to find out what exactly a comet is made of. Here’s a couple of links to get information leading up to the event:

http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
http://www.deepimpact.umd.edu/amateur/

We are proud to announce that we have launced the first full time local Nashville Weather Channel. It is on Comcast Digital Channel 185.

In a quick glance, you can check your local weather here in Middle Tennessee. Live Stormtracker, regional radar, local temperatures, and city cams will all be cycled around in a “wheel” along with a short weather segment anchored by the News 2 Storm Team. The current conditions and the latest 7 Day Forecast will constantly be on the screen.

This is totally local, and tailor-made for Nashville and the Middle Tennessee area.

A front will increase our chances for thunderstorm activity on Tuesday afternoon and evening. That might bring some welcome relief from the afternoon heat. Some real relief from the heat and humidity will arrive Wednesday evening behind the cold front.

I have been told that the most important forecasts that we do are for weekends (especially holiday weekends!) and on Monday mornings. For most people, Monday is that day where everything starts up again and you try to get ready for what’s to come during the week. I would like to think the weather is part of that routine. That leads us to the changes we’ll have this week:

Arlene not only delivered much needed rainfall to half of Middle Tennessee, but put even more humidity in place. It will be quite uncomfortable today and tomorrow before a cool front approaches. That cool front could bring a line of strong storms later Tuesday, here’s the Storm Prediction Center’s outlook for tomorrow:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day2otlk.html

The warmest reading we’ve had so far in 2005 was on June 5th: 92 degrees. We’re going to make a run at that mark tomorrow.

Behind the front, much lower humidity for a few days! But it is June and it won’t take more than a few days for it to return (aka, the weekend!)

Don’t know about you, but my vegetable garden has loved this on and off rain mixed with sunshine, after the very dry May. The ‘maters are thriving! Hoping to post a few pictures over the next few days…I sound like a proud papa don’t I?

Oh, yeah, by the way…that other important forecast we do: next weekend looks great!

As the remnants of ‘Arlene’ continue to spiral away from Middle Tennessee, left in it’s wake…1-4″ rainfall totals from the weekend. Looks like we have bypassed the chance of severe weather today, but some lingering showers are possible through this evening. The heaviest of the rain is moving out though.

If you wanted to play it safe tonight, have the umbrella with you just in case.

From here, we are headed back into the heat and humidity to start the workweek before a cool front brings some changes by Wednesday.

Davis Nolan will have much more on News 2 at 5pm.