Warming temperatures this week. A couple of wet weather systems along the way.

Rain chances are on the way in about 24 hours, but you wouldn't know it based on today's weather! It's turning out to be a beautiful Monday afternoon across the Tennessee Valley with mostly sunny skies, a light south wind, and temperatures warming into the low to mid 60s.

A few clouds will work through the area this afternoon, but there will still be plenty of sun. South winds will continue between 5 and 15 mph this afternoon. Highs will top out just a couple of degrees warmer from where they are now, with everyone reaching the low to mid 60s. By evening, we drop back to the mid to upper 50s, and then only toward the mid 40s overnight as clouds increase. We may see a few showers just to our southwest by daybreak, but our immediate area should stay dry. Rain showers start working into the area as we head into the afternoon, with afternoon highs areawide in the mid 60s.

This first system will bring showers and maybe a rumble of thunder from Tuesday afternoon through Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. We may see a locally heavy downpour, but no severe storms are expected. Showers taper off with time going deeper into Wednesday, and then only a slight chance of a shower on Thursday, as we are in between the departing first storm system and the second one that will bring another chance of rain and thunderstorms to our area Friday, Friday night, into early Saturday.

Temperatures are on the warmer side this week, with afternoon highs ranging from the mid 60s to the lower 70s. We see a slight step down toward the lower 60s by Saturday behind that frontal system, but no real cold weather moves back in. In fact, the 6-10 day temperature outlook from the Climate Prediction Center office of the National Weather Service shows above average temperatures continuing for the eastern half to two-thirds of the United States all the way into the last week of March. We probably have not seen our last cold snap of the late winter and spring, but spring is definitely on the way in!