Near Record Highs this Week, Late Week Showers, Changes Next Week

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update:

October 23, 2023

Joel Barnes,

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update:

We hit 85° on Saturday and will see high temperatures staying above 80° for the rest of the week and last into the weekend. There is a shot we tie or break several records this week. We could see some showers returning late in the week and a major pattern change is coming next week, just in time for Halloween. Catch all the details and your full weather forecast coming up here.

TONIGHT:

Southerly winds will keep our temperatures up tonight across West Tennessee with most of us staying around 60° tonight. We are expecting mostly cloudy skies to stick around as well and temperatures will be well above normal for this time of the year. We are not expecting any rain showers and it will be a bit humid for this time of the year.

TUESDAY:

We will likely see plenty of clouds hanging around for the first part of the day before clearing out into the afternoon hours on Tuesday. Highs on Tuesday will reach the low 80s and the record in Jackson is 83°, we could tie it. The faster the clouds clear out the better chance we will have of tying or setting the record. It will be a bit breezy as well with southerly winds hanging between 10-15 MPH during the day. Tuesday night lows will again stay warm and fall down to around 60° again. Rain showers are not in the forecast for Tuesday.

WEDNESDAY:

We are going to see another warm day with a chance of record highs again on Wednesday. The record is 80° and highs will reach above 80° in the afternoon. Expect mostly sunny skies although there will be a few clouds at times during the day. It will be a bit breezy again with the winds staying out of the south all day long. Wednesday night lows will be warm and fall down into the low 60s. The weather will feel more summer-like than fall on Wednesday. Again, rain is NOT in the forecast.

THURSDAY:

We will pick up our first chance for rain this week on Thursday. We are not expecting much, but a few late showers may try to drift on in. Chances will be best near the Mississippi River as a stalled out boundary near Arkansas is forecast to move to the east as the day progresses. Rain chances only sit at 10-20%. Highs on Thursday will make it up to around 83° with the record being 87°, so we will probably miss it on Thursday. Thursday will be a partly cloudy day with the winds staying out of the south. Thursday night lows will fall down to the mid 60s due to the higher dew point Thursday night.

FRIDAY:

Friday will bring our best shot for rain during the week but chances are only around 20-30%. The system that will be stalled out just to our west most of the week will finally pass through on Friday. A few rumbles of thunder cannot be ruled out but we are not expecting big storms if we see much for storms at all. We are forecast to see partly to mostly cloudy skies during the day. Highs on Friday will top out in the mid 80s. Friday looks to be our best shot at hitting the record, which is 85° set back in 1950. Friday night lows will only dip down to the mid 60s making for a warm start to the weekend.

THE WEEKEND:

We could see an isolated shower or two on Saturday but for the most part, we are expecting another dry weekend across West Tennessee. It will again be a warm weekend with the highs reaching the mid 80s on Saturday and low 80s on Sunday. We could hit or tie another record on Saturday which is 85°. We probably will see a few more clouds on Saturday than Sunday but in general, expect a mostly sunny to partly cloudy weekend. The winds will come out of the south or southwest all weekend long as well helping to keep the temperatures up. Weekend morning lows will stay in the low 60s. A much more significant system is on the way early next week that will look to impact your plans for Halloween. It might be a good idea to do some Halloween stuff with the kids this weekend just in case the weather is NOT as great on Halloween night next Tuesday.

West Tennessee really needs the rain as we have been extremely dry the last 8 weeks. Jackson has only recorded 1/9″ of the rain we usually get for the first half of October and are now over 2.5″ below on the yearly average! Over the last 8 weeks, Jackson has only seen 1.32″ of rain when we average close to 8″ on a normal year during those 8 weeks.

FINAL THOUGHT:

We should be dry most of the week in West Tennessee but will pick up a decent shot from Thursday night through early Saturday. A cold front will come crashing through again early next week and looks to bring some rain showers with it and potentially a few weak storms. Above average weather will also stick around for the entire forecast with no frost possible until next week. The tropics look to be relatively quiet but we are not quite done yet with hurricane season as we are watching a potential storm in the southern Gulf of Mexico. We got you covered in the WBBJ 7 Storm Team Weather Center as always.