The News 2 City Cam shows a few breaks in the clouds in Nashville, while the above satellite picture shows a swath of clear skies from Spencer to McMinnville to Smithville and Sparta to Cookeville.  Meanwhile, west of Nashville, skies are mostly overcast.  Obviously, the more sunshine the warmer the temperatures.  That’s why we are forecasting warmer temps in the area of sunshine to the east, where temperatures are usually a little cooler.  To the west of Nashville, temps stay in the upper 40s to near 50.

Tomorrow, the upper level low that has caused all the cloudiness will be moving farther away from us, so expect some afternoon sunshine on Thursday after a mostly cloudy start.  With more sunshine, temps could reach upper 50s to near 60.

Today is a tough reminder of what the weather in mid November can be like!  We have been spoiled.  As a cold front pushed in overnight, temps dropped from the 50s to the 40s.  At 9am Nashville was 51, but then dropped to 48 at 10am, then to 47 at 11am and noon.  It looks like we may not rebound back to 50 this afternoon in the cloud cover and patchy drizzle.  The normal high for today is 59, so we went from 13 degrees above normal on Sunday to about 10 degrees below normal this afternoon.

The upper level low noted on the satellite picture above will hang around through tomorrow, finally lifting out on Thursday.  We may get lucky and see a few peaks of sun late tomorrow afternoon, but sunshine is more likely on Thursday.

If you are following Stormtracker above, you can see that the shower activity has already pushed into our western counties.  The rain should be in Nashville by rush hour this afternoon/evening.  It has been over two weeks since we have seen any rain on the streets of Nashville (it rained last Tuesday south and east of town).  That means that all that oil and grime that has collected in the pores of the concrete will come out, causing streets to be a little more slippery than normal.  Drive carefully on your way home, or wherever you may be heading when the rain arrives.

What a weekend we had with sunshine and 70 degree weather.  It’s been 15 days since the official rain gage in Nashville received rainfall (although east and southeast of town there was rain last Tuesday).

It looks like it will be near or after dark before the rain arrives in Nashville, but it could be in our western counties near the Tennessee River as early as 3pm.  Shower activity will continue on Tuesday as cooler temperatures push in and hang around most of the week.  Click on the 7 Day Forecast to the right.

We enjoyed a beautiful Sunday with temps topping out in the low  70s across the area.  Tonight will be fair and cool with some patchy morning fog on Monday and lows in the mid 40s. 

Then, we are looking at our next rain chance.  It looks like the rain will hold off for Nashville until Monday evening.  Our counties near the Tennessee River could see some shower activity during the afternoon hours of Monday.  With an increase in cloud cover on Monday, the high temperature should be in the upper 60s.  Starting Tuesday, temps will be cooling down as you can see if you click on the 7 Day Forecast to the right.

After the chilly start with some patchy fog in some areas, expect another nice day.  Highs should reach the low 70s under mostly sunny skies with a few thin clouds.  Winds should be light south and southeast at 5mph. 

Monday should be another mild day with upper 60s to near 70 for a high, but rain should push in Monday night and Tuesday, with cooler temperatures from Tuesday on next week.

The News 2 City Cam shows a beautiful sunset with some high level cirrus clouds.

Make it two nice weekends in a row!  They get harder and harder to come by the later you get in the month of November, so enjoy it.

Tonight will be on the cool side with a low near 40 by daybreak Sunday with upper 30s in many outlying areas.  Expect some patchy dense fog to develop in spots on Sunday morning, much like happened this morning.

Then enjoy a nice Sunday under mostly sunny skies (a few high clouds), with highs reaching the low 70s by the afternoon hours.

The rain got as close as Franklin and Smyrna this morning on the fringes of Ida’s moisture.  That was great for our live broadcasts of News 2 This Morning in downtown Nashville (in conjunction with CMA and Good Morning America).   Meanwhile, it is quite wet in our southern and eastern counties.   The back edge of the rain will slowly ease eastward, but will take its time to exit the eastern areas of Middle Tennessee.

Meanwhile, there is a back edge of the cloud line in Tennessee that is also moving slowly eastward as now Tropical Depression “Ida” drifts  to the east near Pensacola, FL.  Our northwestern areas, like Clarksville, are in the sunshine.  Sunset is early now (4:42pm), so it will be touch and go to get some sunshine in Nashville before dark, but we may get lucky late this afternoon.  Our west and northwest counties will enjoy the afternoon sun for sure.

As the remnants of Ida come ashore and move eastward on Tuesday, expect the fringe rains to push into Middle Tennessee, particularly from Nashville south and east.  Temperatures will be held down to the mid 60s with the clouds and showers, and maintain 60s through Wednesday behind a cold front which will cool night time temps to 40s Wednesday morning and upper 30s Thursday morning.

As for the Gulf Coast, Ida lost its hurricane strength overnight due to some drier air being entrained into the system, along with some wind shear.  Residents along the coast will have a “nuisance” on their hands today and tomorrow with rain and gusty winds, but certainly no Katrina or Ivan.  Yesterday, I told my brother in Pensacola that he didn’t have to move his sailboat to a more secure location, and my parents certainly don’t have to evacuate New Orleans!

After a partly cloudy night with temps dropping to the upper 40s to near 50, clouds will be on the increase on Monday with highs in the low 70s. 

By Tuesday, we anticipate rain from what will be the remnants of Hurricane “Ida”.  As mentioned before, there is one model that forecasts 2-3″ of rain for parts of the mid state.  Other models are in the neighborhood of one half to one inch of rain.  The later seems more likely.