Hot and Dry next several days. Rain chances return next week.

After scattered storms across the area last evening, it is a beautiful Friday morning across the Tennessee Valley! Check out these gorgeous sunrise shots this morning on the Arctic Air Skycam Network! The "cold front" slipped south of us overnight and has brought slightly drier air into the area. This allowed morning lows to be a good 8-12 degrees cooler than the last several mornings, ranging from the lower 70s over north Alabama up the U.S. 43 corridor in middle Tennessee, to as low as 65 this morning in Hohenwald! Temperatures as of the 6:00 AM hour are sitting in the lower 70s still, with much of southern middle Tennessee right at 70 degrees.

A Heat Advisory has been issued for Saturday for western Tennessee and north Mississippi, and it includes Hardin and Tishomingo Counties in our viewing area. This is for heat index values expected to meet or exceed 105 degrees for at least a couple of hours tomorrow afternoon and early evening. The Heat Advisory does not include middle Tennessee or north Alabama at this time. With the slightly drier air in place and temperatures mostly wanting to stay in the mid to upper 90s the next few days, we might cruise by JUST under the heat advisory criteria, especially over middle Tennessee... north Alabama may be cutting it close.

Mostly sunny skies will stick around through our Friday, and temperatures will soar because of it. Afternoon highs look to top out between 95 and 100 across most of the area, but with the lower humidity, heat index values will thankfully not be too out of control. Make no mistake that we will still be hot today, but if dewpoints were what they have been the last few days, we'd be talking about 115-120 degree heat index values by afternoon. As it stands, with the slight drop in humidity, heat index values look to be in the 100-105 degree range. Still hot, and you still need to stay hydrated and take breaks if outside, but not as high-end dangerous. One thing that you do need to pay attention to is pavement temperatures through the day if you're wanting to take your pets on a walk. Pavement, asphalt, and cement/concrete temperatures climb into the dangerous range as early as 10-11am and stay there until near or after sunset. Pavement temperatures this afternoon will likely max out in the 120s or lower 130s! This means that your pet's feet could be injured VERY quickly if they walk on pavement during the day.

We'll start Saturday off near 70 degrees again, and then head for the upper 90s by afternoon under mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies. A few of our models have been spitting out a stray isolated shower or two mainly south of the Tennessee River for both Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. For that reason, we have added a 10% chance of rain in for both days, but the vast majority of us will stay dry. Rain chances start to go up a bit as we head into Monday and especially Tuesday and midweek as the deeper moisture works back northward. That deeper and richer moisture also means that although daytime highs drop back to the lower 90s this coming week, heat index values still look to stay above 100 degrees.