Pleasant Weather In West Tennessee While Milton Sets Sights On Florida

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update:

THIS WEEK:

After making it up to around 90° the previous 3 days, Monday we were back down to around normal for this time of the year. A cold front came racing through last night and dropped highs from the low 90s to the mid 70s for most of us. The cooler weather will stick around for a few days. Lows tonight will fall down to the upper 40s and will hang around 50° for the next several nights.

The winds have been out of the north all day on Monday and will stay out of the north or northeast for the entire work week. This will keep the humidity down, likely keep the clouds away and prevent any rain from showing up this week. We may not see much at all for clouds until maybe the weekend.

Temperatures will slowly climb each day this week. Highs will reach the upper 70s on Tuesday and Wednesday. We should warm back up into the low 80s on Thursday and Friday. Friday night football looks like it is going to be great again this week across the entire Mid-South.

THE WEEKEND:

The warm up will continue into the weekend for us in West Tennessee. Like the previous weekend, we should see mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid 80s. We should fall just short of record highs again. Also like last weekend, it appears a cold front will be coming late Sunday night, dropping temperatures again into next week. The winds will come out of the southwest this weekend and that could bring a few more clouds, but we are still expecting more sun than clouds this weekend. Rain is not in the forecast from this front as it appears to be another dry front. We have not recorded any rain in October and likely won’t for at least the first 2 weeks of the month.

ATLANTIC HURRICANE BASIN:

As of Tuesday morning, Milton had backed off slightly to a category 4 storm with sustained winds of 145 mph. Milton has started to turn more to the east northeast as expected and the pressure has risen some from yesterday’s historic drop in pressure. Hurricane Milton has been going through a normal phase of eyewall replacement where it weakens some in the short course. Forecasts have it strengthening back to a category 5 by the afternoon ahead.

HURRICANE MILTON (905MB) now has recorded the 3rd lowest pressure ever for a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. The lowest ever was Rita (2005) @ 895MB & the second lowest was Katrina (2005) @902 MB. Milton is a top 10 storm already in terms of pressure and wind speeds ever in the Atlantic Hurricane basin. The storm is forecast to weaken some but will make landfall near Tampa Wednesday night or Thursday morning as a cat 3 or 4 storm. This storm if it keeps the current forecast path, will become the most expensive storm ever in the USA. It will also take lives if people do not heed the evacuation orders.

HURRICANE AND STORM SURGE WARNINGS ISSUED FOR PORTIONS OF THE FLORIDA WEST COAST. 
MILTON POSES AN EXTREMELY SERIOUS THREAT TO FLORIDA AND RESIDENTS ARE URGED TO 
FOLLOW THE ORDERS OF LOCAL OFFICIALS.


Winds ranging from 90 mph to over 100 mph are anticipated by late Wednesday and rainfall amounts will add up quickly.

We will be watching Milton closely as we continue forward. The motion speed of the hurricane has increased since yesterday to around 12 mph. Any increase in speed would have a big difference in the the landfall time but it still looks likely to be late Wednesday evening or night.

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