Staying warm this week, becoming rainy and maybe stormy at times.
It is a FOGGY start to our Sunday morning out there. Our Skycam Network shows widespread dense fog across much of the Tennessee Valley, and that will be around through the next few hours. There is a Dense Fog Advisory for ALL of our viewing area through around 9:00am or so. Temperatures are on the mild side as well, especially for this time of year. We are in the low to mid 50s in most places, with a few locations hanging out in the upper 50s. This is usually near or just above our average daytime highs for late December!
We expect another mostly cloudy and warm day across the Valley, with afternoon temperatures once again topping out near the lower 70s. We expect a breezy southwest wind again, but not quite as strong as the last few days. The warm conditions continue into the overnight, with Sunday night lows only falling back toward the upper 50s and lower 60s.
As a frontal boundary slides by just to our north as it weakens, we begin to introduce the chance of a shower or two to the forecast for Monday. Most folks are going to stay dry, but we can't rule out a shower. Southerly winds get strong again on Tuesday as a big low pressure area passes to our north. We'll be into the low to mid 70s, with a few showers possible during the day. That front sags into the area Tuesday night and into Wednesday with a few showers and thunderstorms possible. A wave of energy rides up the front late Wednesday and Wednesday night, with showers and thunderstorms becoming more widespread. Some of the rainfall may be locally heavy, and we can't completely rule out a strong storm or two. That front slides south of us going into Thursday, but it doesn't make it all the way to the coast before putting on the brakes.
A few showers will remain possible Thursday and Friday in the southwest flow aloft. Temperatures stay in the 60s for daytime highs Thursday and Friday, but that front races back north Friday night as a warm front, and we are back into a very warm and unstable air mass on Saturday with highs once again in at least the lower 70s (if not a bit warmer), and dewpoints way up into the mid 60s or higher. We will be carefully watching for a stronger storm system to approach between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. As it interacts with that unstable air mass in a broad warm sector, there may be a more significant risk of strong storms across the overall area... but it's a bit too far out to know too many details. Keep checking back in over the next several days as we continue to analyze that system and fine tune the details.