First Freeze Coming Tonight, VERY COLD Halloween Expected

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update:

October 30, 2023

Joel Barnes,

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update:

A powerful cold front swept through West Tennessee last night and continued to usher in the chilly air all day long. The front is causing some locations to be 40 degrees cooler in just a 24 hour period. The front did bring some beneficial rainfall to most of West Tennessee. Unfortunately for the places under the extreme drought (like Hardin County) saw the smallest amounts of rain. Some areas northwest of Crockett county saw around 3″ of rain. Areas around Jackson picked up around an inch over the weekend from the two rounds of rain.

For the first time since March 29th temperatures will be falling below freezing in West Tennessee. The record low tonight is 27° in Jackson and that is the forecast low tonight. Temperatures are likely to be even colder tomorrow night. It will be a cold evening for Trick-Or-Treaters tomorrow. Find out how many days we are are going to be dealing with these freezing temperatures and I will let you know if there is any rain returning in the forecast as well coming up right here.

FIRST FREEZE OF 2023 COMING:

Our first freeze in Jackson usually occurs towards the end of October or the beginning over November. Last year our first freeze was early on October 18th but the previous year we didn’t see our first freeze until November 4th. Over the last 10 years, our first freeze has ranged from Mid October to early November.

The first freeze of the fall is on the way tonight for all of West Tennessee. The forecast looks to be even colder for Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. The last time temperatures fell down below freezing in Jackson was March 29th over 200 days ago.

Usually we see our first frost a couple weeks before we see our first freeze, but this year, they are both coming in on the same night. The forecast for Tuesday night on Halloween looks even colder than tonight with some locations possibly following down into the low 20s, the record Tuesday night is 22°.

TONIGHT:

Behind the cold front overnight lows will be dropping into the mid to upper 20s for all of West Tennessee. We have not seen temperatures this cold in around 7 months. Please remember the 4ps (People, Pipes, Pets & Plants) as this first cold spell of the season settles on in. The clouds are going to be decreasing tonight and the winds will stay light out of the north but the temperatures could feel as low as 20° in the morning due to the cold and wind. Expect a widespread morning frost across all of the region. The showers that were lingering around to kick off the day have now moved off to the east and we will be dry tonight.

HALLOWEEN DAY FORECAST:

After starting out in the 20s in the morning, highs will only reach up to around 50° for your Tuesday. We are expecting mostly sunny to sunny skies but that will not help it feel much warmer into the afternoon hours. The winds will be a bit breezy as well and come out of the northwest adding to the brisk weather most of the day. Tuesday night is going to fall down to the low to mid 20s overnight into Tuesday morning.

Hopefully if you have some little ones and you do not want to deal with the cold that you took advantage of the warmer weather this weekend and did some Halloween things with your little ones. It will be a cold night for the kids with temperatures ranging from 45°-35° during the Trick-Or-Treating Hours.

WEDNESDAY:

We are going to bottom out from this cold wave on Wednesday morning with morning lows starting out in the low to mid 20s. Highs on Wednesday will struggle to make it up above 50° with many of us only reaching the upper 40s for high temperatures. We will see plenty of sunshine and the winds will be light and shift from the northwest to the south as the day progresses. We will all see frost in the morning on Wednesday so please bundle up and be prepared for the cold.

THURSDAY/FRIDAY:

Warmer weather is going to slowly move back in towards the back half of the work week. We will still see plenty of sunshine but the winds will come out of the south and that will try to slowly warm us back up near normal by Friday. Thursday morning will still be cold in the upper 20s but we should warm up close to 60° by the afternoon on Thursday. Friday morning will start out in the mid 30s but high temperatures in the afternoon will make it back up into the mid 60s. The weather looks a bit cool but not too bad for Friday night football games again. You will need a jacket/coat for sure though. We are not expecting any rain to fall on Thursday or Friday this week.

THE WEEKEND:

We should warm back up nicely for the upcoming weekend with highs reaching up to around 70s. We should see clouds increasing as the weekend progresses and there could be a shot for some showers trying to return on Sunday but overall confidence in the late weekend rain chance is pretty low as of now. The winds this weekend will start out of the south and transition to the west. There could be a late weekend front approaching as well but we are not sure if it will push through the Mid South or not. Morning lows this weekend will be around 40° on Saturday and in the mid to upper 40s for Sunday morning.

FINAL THOUGHT:

The first frost and freeze is coming early this week and it will be a very cold day for Halloween festivities, so be sure to add an extra layer to your costumes and please keep the little ones bundled up and warm before you send them out for candy on Tuesday. Also, please remember the 4ps as this is our first real cold spell of the fall. Rain looks to be staying away for the rest of the week as well. 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 Caribbean. We got you covered in the WBBJ 7 Storm Team Weather Center as always.