Mostly Dry and Mild Weekend Coming, Severe Threat Back Early Next Week!

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update

2 hours ago

Joel Barnes,

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update:

Well some good and bad news this afternoon. The good is that the storm threat is over for today. The bad is we really did pick up much in the rain department to help out with the drought. The good news next week is there are several chances for some heavy rain. The bad news is the severe weather threat appears to be quite high Monday night and possibly again on Tuesday. We will have the latest on the storm threat as well as your complete weekend forecast coming up here.

May be an image of map and text that says 'STORMTRACKER MAXRADAR 4:14PM 4:14 4 4: St. Louis Springfield Lightning Strikes: 356 rincinnati MATIRESS Garrett Galler Gallertharre6 auethar31-668-3339 raducan London Nash ille Roanok Jackson Little LittileRodk RoO箱 emphis Knoxville Chattanooga untsville Charlotte bi: JaCkson Storm threat is over for us in West Tennessee for Friday. A few light lingering showers is SMontgomei Montgon about all that is left.'

THURSDAY’S EARTHQUAKE:

A pretty intense earthquake, for Mid South standards hit just before 1pm CT on Thursday. The epicenter was located near Steele Missouri about 8 miles west of the Mississippi River & 25 miles west of Dyersburg. People are far away as Hardin county have claimed to have felt it. So far no damage reports have come in. It was only our 7th quake of 4.0 or stronger in the New Madrid Seismic Zone since 2000.

Thursday’s quake of 4.0 just west of the Mississippi River was actually quite rare. We have only seen 40 quakes of that magnitude or stronger since 1900. On average, we see 3 quakes each decade of 4.0 or stronger along the New Madrid Seismic Zone. We have not recorded one above 4.8 since the Halloween Quake of 1895 near Charleston Missouri. Bigger quakes are extremely rare. Experts estimate a 7–10% probability of a repeat of the 1811–1812-type earthquakes (magnitude 7.5–8.0) within the next 50 years. The probability of a magnitude 6.0 or greater is 25–40% in that same period.

Rain totals were not great for us on Friday here in West Tennessee. Severe storms were unlikely, but a few lightning strikes popped up in the afternoon hours south of Madison county. The rain showers to moved through from the late morning through the late afternoon hours. There is an outside chance for a couple showers late Friday night, but the latest forecast models have started to lean on those not showing up. Most of us saw less than 1/8″ of rain on Friday although a few places saw a little more than that. There are better chances for showers and storms in the forecast as we get going into next week. We really need the rain as all of West Tennessee is under either a severe or extreme drought. Highs on Friday reached up to around 80° and Friday night lows will fall to the low 60s. The winds stayed out of the south for most of the day on Friday and will turn up calm tonight.

May be an image of map and text that says 'STORM STORMTEAM TEAM WEATHER wbbjtv.com DROUGHT MONITOR Apr23 2026 DAY MODERATE SEVERE EXTREME Union City Tiptonville Martin EXCEPTIONAL Paris Dyersburg Trenton Ripley Ripley Huntingdon Camden Alamo Jackson Covington Brownsville Well some good and bad news this afternoon. The good is that the storm threat is over for today. The bad is we really did pick up much in the rain department to help out with the drought. Lexington Parsons Henderson Somerville Bolivar Memphis Savannah Selmer'

THIS WEEKEND:

There is a slight chance some of the showers on Friday linger into the day on Saturday. As the day goes on, a couple showers and storms could develop along a stalled out front, but most of us will be dry by Saturday evening and almost all of us will stay that way for Sunday. Highs this weekend will still reach around 80° as the cold front coming in is likely to stall out and not push completely through West Tennessee. We should be a few degrees warmer on Sunday than Saturday depending on when that front lifts back to the north of us.

May be an image of map and text that says 'STORM STORMTEAM TEAM WEATHER wbbjtv.com .com 48 HOUR REGIONAL FORECAST Sunday 4:20 AM FAN Des Moines MED SNOW Buffalo Chicago St. St.Louis Louis COOL Cincinnati New NewYork York Baltimore Jackson Little Rock Winston-Salem HOT Jackson We should be mostly dry this weekend as a stalled out front will drift back to the north of นร by Sunday. Highs will reach the upper 70s on Saturday and low-mid 80s on Sunday'

Morning lows will hang around 60°. The winds will come out of the north to kick off the day on Saturday but turn to the southeast as the weekend goes on. The winds will shift when the stalled out front is again lifted to the north of us. Forecasting rain with a stalled out system is often difficult to determine when the rain is going to move out and who is most likely going to see the most, so stay weather aware later this week as the forecast is a challenging one on Friday night and lingering into the weekend. A more concerning threat for severe weather appears to coming in on Monday next week. That is something we are going to need to watch very closely as we get more forecast data this week.

May be an image of map and text that says 'STORM STORMTEAM TEAM WEATHER wbbjtv.com SEVERE WEATHER RISK MONDAY STORM THREAT 15% Tiptonville 30% Martin The good news next week is there are several Dyersburg Camden กลก Covington Jackson Parsons chances for some heavy rain. The bad news is the severe weather threat appears to be quite high Monday night and possibly again on Tuesday. Memphis Bolivar Savannah'

NEXT WEEK:

There will be several chances for showers and storms next week here in West Tennessee. We really need the rain as most of our area is under an extreme drought, so that is the good news. The bad news is some pretty intense storms are looking likely as of now. The first threat will come in Monday evening into Tuesday morning but another round of severe weather could move through Tuesday night in Wednesday morning too. More showers and storms could return in the middle of next week as well so we need to watch how things unfold closely all week next week. Highs will reach the low to mid 80s on Monday and Tuesday but we will be cooling down to the mid to upper 70s for Wednesday and Thursday. The winds will shift from the southwest to the north by Wednesday but will look to rebound back to the south as we wrap up the work week.