Extreme Summer Heat Ahead

Weather Update – Monday, August 23 – 10:00 PM

FLOOD RECAP:

A rare flooding event took place yesterday in Middle Tennessee. The system traveled more easterly than expected, dropping 17″ of rain in McEwen, Tennessee in less than 24 hours-Where 9.34″ of rainfall fell in only 3 hours.  This broke the previous record for 24 hour rainfall accumulation in Middle Tennessee of  9.45″ on May 1, 2010 in Franklin, Tennessee. This also broke the all-time 24 hour rainfall accumulation record for the state of Tennessee. The previous all-time record was 13.60″ in Milan on September 13, 1982.

Humphreys, Hickman, and Dickson counties saw the worst of the flooding, however, waters are already beginning to recede. As of Saturday evening, there are 21 fatalities and over 30 still missing. Radar estimated 17.40″ inches of rain, only slightly ahead of the 17.02″ measurement made by the National Weather Service.

Below are the radar estimated precipitation totals . The highest actual totals was in Humpherys county which recorded 17.26″ of rain.

THIS EVENING: 

A ridge is building in place as a high pressure will move in later to the week. This will bring warmer and more humid temperatures that we saw a glimpse of today. Highs reached into the lower 90’s for many across the region. Partly cloudy skies will remain into the evening, bringing another hot and humid day tomorrow. Lows should reach into the lower 70’s this evening.

TOMORROW:

Tomorrow, we could see temperatures into the lower to middle 90’s with heat index values in the lower 100’s. A heat advisory looks likely again for parts of the area with 105 and 110 likely. There is a chance for this to extend later into the week as well. Partly cloudy skies will remain and winds will remain fairly clam. The high pressure should set in during the later parts of the afternoon to the evening. This could bring clear skies overnight and lows in the lower 70’s once again.

DANGEROUS HEAT:

Heat index reading will be over 100 the next couple of days and we may wind up with an excessive heat warning being possible by Wednesday.

Be sure to take plenty of breaks in the heat ahead.

We should see some slight relief in the heat by around Thursday as a few scattered storms move our way. A weak cold front should drift through the area by the weekend bringing a healthy chance of scattered storms Sunday into Monday and cooler temperatures back to the middle to upper 80’s.

Brian Davis
Storm Team 7 Meteorologist
Twitter – @Brian7wbbj
Facebook – Briandaviswbbj
Email – Badavis@wbbjtv.com