New Blog Launched!

I have launched a new blog that will be a bit more dynamic and have a few more useful pages.  The site is West Tennessee Weather Online and its url/address is

http://wtnweather.com/

PLEASE BOOKMARK THE NEW LOCATION.

Freezing Fog Advisory Extended through 10 AM

FREEZING FOG ADVISORY
WEST TENNESSEE WEATHER ONLINE JACKSON TN
850 AM CST MON JAN 18 2010

…FREEZING FOG ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM CST THIS MORNING…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MEMPHIS HAS ISSUED A FREEZING FOG ADVISORY…WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 AM CST THIS MORNING.

* COUNTIES INCLUDED: LAKE-OBION-WEAKLEY-HENRY-DYER-GIBSON-CARROLL-CROCKETT-MADISON-CHESTER-HENDERSON-DECATUR-MCNAIRY-HARDIN

* CITIES INCLUDED: …UNION CITY…MARTIN…DRESDEN…PARIS…DYERSBURG…HUMBOLDT…MILAN…HUNTINGDON…JACKSON…LEXINGTON…SAVANNAH

* TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN AT OR BELOW FREEZING THROUGH 9 AM CST.

* VISIBILITIES WILL DROP AT OR BELOW ONE QUARTER MILE AT TIMES ACROSS THE ADVISORY AREA.

* DENSE FOG WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP OVERNIGHT ACROSS THE MID SOUTH AND PERSIST UNTIL 10 AM CST.

* REDUCED VISIBILITIES WILL CREATE HAZARDOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS AND INCREASED TRAVEL TIME FOR MOTORISTS TO REACH THEIR
DESTINATION. ELEVATED SURFACES SUCH AS BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES MAY BECOME SLICK.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A FREEZING FOG ADVISORY MEANS FROST WILL FORM ON SURFACES FROM THE FREEZING FOG AND WILL CAUSE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES.  ALSO…
VISIBILITIES WILL BE REDUCED. IF DRIVING…SLOW DOWN…USE YOUR HEADLIGHTS…AND LEAVE PLENTY OF DISTANCE AHEAD OF YOU. ALSO…BE
ALERT FOR FROST ON BRIDGE DECKS CAUSING SLIPPERY ROADS.

NWS/HOLMES
www.wtnweather.com

Talk Beginning About Storms Next Weekend

(Sunday, January 17, 2010) – Forecasters will be watching the potential for a significant

Weather Map for 6 AM Sunday, Jan. 24th, 2010

outbreak of storminess in the middle of the nation late next weekend.  The Day 7 surface map (valid 6 AM Sunday), which will be subject to revision this week, shows a significant low pressure system in the Plains that could lend to the development of a convective weather outbreak, the first of the new year.  Additional posts will be made as data and forecasts develop.

Holmes

…And the Thaw Continues!

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
WEST TENNESSEE WEATHER ONLINE JACKSON TN
530 PM CST SAT JAN 16 2010

…TEMPERATURES HAVE MODERATED SOME THE FIRST HALF OF JANUARY 2010…

THE FIRST 10 DAYS OF JANUARY HAD AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE AT THE JACKSON, MCKELLAR-SIPES REGIONAL AIRPORT OF 22.0º.  BY THE 15TH, THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE HAS WARMED TO 26.0º WHICH IS 11.5º BELOW AVERAGE.  IT TIES THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH OF JANUARY 1977.  THAT MONTH RANKS AS JACKSON’S COLDEST MONTH ON RECORD.

ON A SEPARATE NOTE, TODAY MARKS THE FIRST TIME MEASURABLE PRECIPITATION HAS BEEN RECORDED IN JACKSON FOR THE NEW YEAR.  WE RECEIVED AS MUCH AS 0.3″ INCH OF SNOW AT THE JACKSON AIRPORT ON THE 7TH, BUT THE SNOW DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH WATER IN IT TO MELT DOWN TO 0.01″, THUS A TRACE AMOUNT WAS RECORDED.

EH

A Wet Remainder to the Weekend

Radar Image at 3:45 PM

From the NWS:

RAIN WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD NORTH AND ENCOMPASS THE MAJORITY OF THE MIDSOUTH BY SUNSET. THROUGH 6 PM CST…RAINFALL RATES WILL RANGE FROM A FEW HUNDREDTHS OF AN INCH AN HOUR ACROSS EXTREME NORTHEAST ARKANSAS …THE MISSOURI BOOTHEEL AND WEST TENNESSEE…TO NEARLY A QUARTER OF AN INCH AN HOUR ACROSS EAST CENTRAL ARKANSAS AND NORTH
MISSISSIPPI. NO FLOODING OF ANY KIND IS ANTICIPATED. HOWEVER…
PONDING OF WATER ON THE ROADWAYS IS LIKELY IN THE HEAVIER BANDS OF
PRECIPITATION.

Tonight: Rain. Low around 41. Northeast wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible.

Sunday: Rain likely, mainly before noon. Cloudy, with a high near 50. North northwest wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 35. West northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

M.L.King Day: Mostly sunny, with a high near 60. Calm wind becoming south southwest between 5 and 10 mph.

Today’s Weather-in-a-Word: ‘Awesometastic’!!

(Friday, January 15, 2010) – I saw one of my Facebook friends and fellow educators use the term.  I liked it.  In fact I have been throwing it around all this week.  Today’s weather could be described by it:  “awesometastic!”   After being in the deep freeze, to end the week with highs in the 60s was both awesome and fantastic!

Today's Temperature Graph from North Jackson

At the time of this writing, the high temperature here in North Jackson has been 64º.  At the Jackson airport, the high has been 62º.  Our weather will remain relatively mild but turn wet as a weather system lifts from the Gulf of Mexico into the Tennessee valley by Sunday morning.  Still no signs of significant cold air push into the region for the next ten days.

EH

Weekend Forecast

Today: Partly sunny, with a high near 55. East southeast wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 35. East wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Saturday: A 30 percent chance of rain. Cloudy, with a high near 50. East wind between 5 and 15 mph. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Saturday Night: Rain. Low around 41. North northwest wind between 5 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

Sunday: A 40 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51. Northwest wind between 5 and 10 mph. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 35. West northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

M.L.King Day: Mostly sunny, with a high near 57. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph.

Coming Out of the Deep Freeze

(Wednesday, January 13, 2010) – Keep these numbers in mind:  28-46.  These numbers will be important to remember for the next several days because our temperature trend will be more toward lows in the upper 20s and highs in the mid to even upper 40s.  These numbers are the average lows and highs for mid-January around West TN.  Southerly winds are setting in and will bring us out of the deep freeze.

The pre-dawn weather map has the center of high pressure over central MS.  It will move to near the coast of the SE US in the next 24-hours.  We will be coming off of lows in the teens this morning and will warm into the 40s today.  Temperatures Thursday will warm well into the 40s and make an attempt for 50º in some areas.  Mostly to partly sunny skies should be the rule both today and Thursday.

Sunday's weather map showing system that will contribute to a wet weekend for the area.

On Friday, a weak cold front will be approaching.  It is expected to bring clouds but the atmosphere will remain too dry for rain to fall.  However, by the weekend, a more potent weather system will be approaching from the southwest.  An upper level low and a surface low will join forces to inject moisture into the atmosphere over us that will result in modest rain chances both days for the weekend.  Lows will be above freezing and highs will be in the upper 40s to near 50º.

EH

Severe Hail Criterion Goes Up 24 Cents

(Tuesday, January 12, 2010) – Actually it is not the cost of severe hail, rather the size.  On January 5th,  minimum size hail criterion for severe thunderstorms changes from 3/4 inch (penny-size) to 1 inch (quarter-size) nationwide.

Previously, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued Severe Thunderstorm Warnings whenever a thunderstorm is forecast to produce wind gusts to 58 miles per hour (50 knots) or greater and/or hail size 3/4 inch (penny-size) diameter or larger. For the past few years, offices that cover areas of Kansas have experimented using a warning criterion of one inch diameter hail. During the spring and early summer of 2009, this experiment expanded to other areas in the Central and Western U.S. Beginning January 5, 2010, the minimum size for severe hail nationwide increased to one inch (quarter-size) diameter. There is not a change to the wind gust criterion of 58 mph.

This change is based on research indicating significant damage does not occur until hail size reaches 1 inch (quarter-size) in diameter, and as a response to requests by core partners in emergency management and the media. Particularly in areas of the Central U.S., the frequency of severe thunderstorm warnings issued for penny-size and nickel size hail might have desensitized the public to take protective action during a severe thunderstorm warning

In areas that experimented with changing to the one inch hail criterion, media partners stated their user feedback suggests warnings are now more meaningful. In addition, television networks receive fewer viewer complaints from breaking into programming for non-damaging storms.  The Emergency Management community in those areas agreed that warnings carry more weight, and spotters now concentrate on the more significant events.

NWS/WTWO

“Chilled-Back” for a Day

(Tuesday, January 12, 2010) – The warmest readings of the year occured Monday around West TN.  Outside of Memphis, highs ranged from 40 at Union City to 47 at Jackson.  We lose some ground today, due to the intrusion of some modified arctic air that arrived late Monday.  The leading edge of this new air mass, a cold front, has moved into the Deep South.

High pressure centered over northern Missiouri is sprawled from the Great Lakes to the Southern Plains.  So look for a partly sunny day with highs chilled-back about 10 degrees–topping out in the mid-30s.

Wednesday, high pressue will shift to our east. Our winds become more southerly and we’ll reclaim the lost temperature territory with highs returning to the mid-upper 40s.  An upper level low pressure will swing across northern Mexico into the lower MS valley as we head into the weekend.  A surface low pressure will form over the Gulf of Mexico and move into the Gulf coast states.  So all of this means that clouds will be increasing Thursday night and low-side chances of rain come into the forecast by the weekend.

EH