Quiet weather for now. Rain and storms return by midweek. Cooler in time for Halloween weekend.

After morning rain across parts of the Tennessee Valley, it has turned out to be a rather nice Monday afternoon! Clouds have cleared out nicely behind the system, with breezy to gusty west-northwest winds. Temperatures have warmed into the low to mid 70s across southern middle Tennessee and northern Alabama.

A bit of cloud cover works in from the north during the evening and overnight. That will help insulate us just a little bit, but much cooler and drier air will still allow us to drop into the mid 40s by daybreak on Tuesday. Skies stay mostly sunny for Tuesday with high pressure temporarily centered over the area. The cooler and drier air mass remains though, with afternoon highs only getting up toward the low to mid 60s.

High pressure begins to shift east Tuesday night into Wednesday as a big storm system moves out of the Plains toward the Southeast. Rain and thunderstorms return to the Tennessee Valley by Wednesday night and especially Thursday. Fortunately, it looks like any risk of severe weather with this system (storms with damaging winds, hail, or tornadoes) will be well off to the south and southwest of our area. Showers will linger through Friday under the upper low as it cuts off over the area, but cooler air will begin moving in as early as Thursday. By Friday and Halloween weekend, we are talking about daytime highs only in the upper 50s and lower 60s again. As of right now, it looks like rain clears out prior to trick-or-treating time on Saturday and Sunday.