Milder through tomorrow, then rain returns, and much colder air after that

Sunshine has returned across the Tennessee Valley, and it has led to a beautiful Tuesday afternoon! Temperatures are well up into the mid/upper 40s if not lower 50s areawide. Radar is clear for now, but that will be changing over the next 24 hours. So, we will take this beautiful day while we have it!

We look to reach the lower 50s through much of the area as we head through the afternoon, but clouds will be on the increase as we head through the evening and overnight. Temperatures won't drop a whole lot because of that and the south wind, only back to the lower 40s for overnight lows. A few showers will be possible as early as the morning hours of Wednesday, but rain and maybe even a few rumbles of thunder are more likely in the afternoon and evening. Temperatures look to climb into the mid to upper 50s by afternoon, and a few of us may even briefly run up to 60 or 61 degrees. Heavy rain moves in during the evening as a big arctic cold front moves into the region. That tapers off from northwest to southeast during the late overnight hours, and there may even be a brief window where a little light sleet or a light wintry mix may try to work in. However, this is a classic case of cold air chasing the moisture. These setups almost NEVER result in anything impactful. Still, with temperatures dropping well into the mid or even lower 20s overnight and toward daybreak, a little black ice may be possible, especially on bridges, overpasses, and other exposed areas.

Arctic air moves in behind that front Wednesday night, and we struggle to get above freezing for both Thursday and Friday. Morning lows from Thursday all the way into early next week will range between the mid 10s to the low to mid 20s. We are still watching another Gulf system heading into Friday, but model data continues to trend toward that staying south and southeast of our local area. We will continue to watch for any changes.

We "moderate" temperatures going into the weekend and early next week, but we are only talking about afternoon highs recovering into the low to maybe mid 40s by then. Morning lows will still be in the upper 10s to lower 20s. It's looking like we will continue to average below normal in the temperature department through the rest of the month for the most part. Persistent upper-level troughing over the eastern United States will keep shots of col air moving south into our region for the foreseeable future.