We’re catching a bit of a break from the rain in Nashville (typing at 11:30 am) but there’s more on the way. Showers, some heavy, are pushing north from Mississippi and Alabama right now. There’s plenty of them: the slug of rain extends from the Tennessee state line down to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Regional radar loop is here and tells the story quite well. The main surface low pressure is currently in Iowa, sitting directly underneath the upper level low pressure responsible for all of this lovely weather. Being “vertically stacked” is the tell-tale sign of maturity, as far as weather systems go. Usually our weather moves from west to east in a timely fashion; not so with this pattern. That area of upper level low pressure will slowly drift north over the next few days, but upper air support on the low’s southern edge will continue to pass over Tennessee (shortwaves). In combination with decent moisture at the surface and aloft, those “shorties” will mean showers and thundershowers possible Monday as well as Tuesday. The Storm Prediction Center has us in a slight risk of severe weather both days, so we’ll watch it closely. This set-up does not look like a big severe weather outbreak to me. I’ll be interested to see what the rest of the weather crew has to say on the news tonight and tomorrow morning.
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Southeast winds at 15 to 25 mph will persist as we finish the weekend. Off and on rain showers are also in the picture, but your Sunday will not be a wall-to-wall washout. This morning there are some showers across Middle Tennessee with heavier rain in West Tennessee. That axis of moisture in West Tennessee will push our way from morning through the afternoon. For that reason, I expect showers to be most numerous from morning through the afternoon. But…a quick bout of rain is possible at just about any point in time so check that “NWS Radar Loop” above if you’re stepping out the door and want to avoid getting wet. A few peeks of sun are out there, but I’m calling for a mostly cloudy sky and highs in the upper 60s. That gusty wind from the southeast won’t let up until this evening, which in addition to the rain threat might hamper your outside plans. A few thunderstorms are possible on Monday (probably not until evening or night) and again on Tuesday…some of those could be strong. The Storm Prediction Center has placed West Tennesse and areas to our west and northwest under a slight risk of severe weather today, but that shouldn’t impact the News 2 viewing area.

I can’t rule out an isolated light morning shower, but the weather will cooperate with the Country Music Marathon! Wake-up temperatures are in the lower 60s. With a good amount of cloud cover around…afternoon highs will only hit the lower to middle 70s. Southeast breezes will start at 5 to 10 mph, but by midday and afternoon they’ll strengthen to 10 to 20 mph. The bulk of the rain should hold off until tonight and Sunday. We may hear some claps of thunder but no strong storms are expected.

Not too hot and not TOO wet!

A pretty good forecast for marathon runners Saturday morning. Yes, we may have a light shower swing through but no storms in the forecast. It will get a bit breezy by mid morning.
Better rain chance for Sunday.

Congrats to all the runners who have worked so hard and are in such good shape!!

A little warmer today with just a few clouds; it’s going to be another very nice Spring day. Winds start picking up from the east turning to the southeast tonight as clouds move in. We’ll have cloudy conditions for the marathon with a temperature around 60 degrees through the morning. Winds will be picking up from the southeast and get a little gusty by late morning. Rain should hold off until later in the day, rain chances increase by tomorrow night. During the overnight and Sunday we’ll have some wet weather; unsettled weather lasts through Tuesday.

Not much to update this Thursday in the weather department. Midday temperatures are in the lower 60s and afternoon highs should nudge 70 degrees around 4 or 5 pm. Current conditions are here. Friday looks good: another cool morning but a developing southeast breeze puts us in the lower and middle 70s tomorrow afternoon with continued sunshine. The weekend system is an interesting one in that there’s plenty of wind energy aloft but minimal instability (dynamics, but no thermodynamics). That will likely keep severe weather out of the picture, but we’ll expect showers and thundershowers both days with highs in the upper 60s and lower 70s. I’m playing in a golf tournament down in Spring Hill this Saturday so the pressure is on for dry weather. That’s going to be a tough order; I’ve already told the organizer that we’ll plan for wet weather and hope I’m wrong. Rain or not, I’m a lot more concerned about my golfing ability than my weather prediction. Fore! This is a good opportunity to link to a funny story from the boss of the boss.

Yesterday was an interesting day: lots of moisture in the atmosphere with a south wind in the mid levels as cold air poured in from the north at the surface. The clouds didn’t move away and the temperatures didn’t budge. The midnight high of 63 dropped to 55 degrees by 8:00am, it was 54 degrees by 11:00pm. This morning by the way is the coldest morning we’ve had since the morning of April 10th.

We switched over to daylight savings time at the start of April which brought the sun up an hour later. Last March 13th the sunrise was at 6:00am. We officially made up that loss of daylight as of today: the sunrise this Thursday morning was at 5:59am. Since the winter solstice the days have been getting longer, gaining about 2 minutes a day on average. The pace of adding daylight peaks around the equinox; it took a little over 40 days to gain an hour in the morning daylight. It will take to early June to gain another half-hour; the earliest the sun comes up around here is 5:29am.