60° Friday in Jackson, Cooler on Saturday but Warmer Again on Sunday!

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update

3 hours ago

Joel Barnes,

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update:

Highs made it all the way up to 60° for some of us today and everyone at least made it into the 50s. A dry front is moving through Jackson during the 4PM hour and will push south of West Tennessee tonight. The front will stall out but will drop temperatures about 15° on Saturday with highs only reaching the mid 40s. The front will be pushed back to the north of us as a warm front on Sunday warming us back up again quickly. There is a shot we hit 70° next week and rain showers are expected to return; and maybe a few storms. Catch the full forecast coming up here.

UNION UNIVERSITY TORNADO 18TH ANNIVERSARY:

Today marks the 18th anniversary of 2nd deadliest tornado outbreak to occur in the month of February. The outbreak was especially devesting for us in West Tennessee. There were 87 confirmed tornadoes that day that clamed 57 lives. 31 of the lives lost were in Tennessee with a total of 13 tornadoes including two EF-4s in West TN. The only outbreak more deadly that happened in February was Mississippi Delta outbreak in 1971 that killed 123 people on February 21st.

May be an image of map and text that says 'STORM STORMTEAM TEAM WEATHER wbbitv.com com FEBRUARY 5. 2008 SUPER TUESDAY TORNADO OUTBREAK Tiptonville Union City Martin HERE ARE ALL THE TORNADO WARNINGS ISSUED BY THE NWS IN WEST TENNESSEE 18 YEARS AGO TODAY! Paris Dyersburg Trenton Ripley Camden Huntingdon Alamo Brownsville Covington Jackson There were 87 confirmed tornadoes that day that claimed 57 lives.3 31 of the lives lost were in Lexington Parsons Tennessee with a total of 13 tornadoes Savanna including two EF-4s in West TN Henderson Somerville Memphis Bolivar Selmer'

18 years ago Thursday, north Jackson was devastated by a EF-4 tornado with with winds over 200 MPH. On February 5, 2008, at 7:02 pm the tornado struck the Union University campus in Jackson, causing approximately $40 million in damages, destroying 70-80% of student housing, and heavily damaging several academic buildings. Miraculously, no fatalities occurred on campus, though over 50 students were hospitalized and several were trapped in debris. It doesn’t matter what time of the year here in West Tennessee, we always need to stay weather aware. We are going to warm up next week and might start to have to pay attention again to possible severe weather.

May be an image of map and text that says 'STORM TEAM WEATHER wbbjtv.com port FEBRUARY 5 2008 SUPER TUESDAY TORNADO OUTBREAK Huntingdon Milan Aamo Medina Ripley EF-4 EF (6:59pm 7.6 miles) 0 deaths, 51 injuries, 125 yards wide Cedar Grove Wildersville Jackson The tornado touched down at the Union Covingt Co University Campus near the U.S. Highway 45 Bypass in Jackson producing tremendous damage. Fifty one people were injured at Union University as two dormitories collapsed during the passage of the violent Lexington Luray Medon Mason 70 structures in Jackson were destroyed and more than 500 more damaged. Total damage around 100 million gton Henderson one Finger M'

THIS WEEK:

Friday was the warmest day we have had in a couple weeks. Highs reached the mid to upper 50s and some of us even hit 60°. Most of the ice and snow left across the area melted on Friday, but there is still a bit left on some area that should melt by Sunday. We saw a mostly sunny day as well with winds kicking up at times out of the west or southwest. The winds kicked up the most as the front passed through in the afternoon and early evening hours. The warmest part of the day will be in the early afternoon before the front moves in. The front only brought a few clouds and no precipitation fell in our region from it. With the mostly clear skies by Saturday morning, we will again fall down to the low 30s to kick off our weekend.

THIS WEEKEND:

It appears a weak and dry front will cool us down again for the upcoming first half of the weekend. Expect a 10°-15° drop from Friday but the front will stall out during the day, and be lifted back to the north as a warm front, early in the day on Sunday. Sunday highs will make it up to around 60° and low to mid 60s are on the way as we kick off next week. This warm up and pattern change will put us back into more of a rain and storm concern than a winter type storm concern for next week. Expect a mostly sunny weekend with some clouds on Saturday as the front moves back and forth. The winds will vary in direction on Saturday but be back to the south or southwest on Sunday.

NEXT WEEK:

Very warm weather will be coming back for next week across the Mid South and all of West Tennessee. There will be a couple systems moving around and near us that could spark up a few storms and rain showers. As of now, the severe threat looks low in our area with these systems but we will still need to keep a close eye on things next week. Highs on Monday will reach the mid 60s and we could be even warmer on Tuesday. The winds will come out of the south to start the week before changing back to the north by the back half of the work week. Rain showers are forecast to move through late in the day on Tuesday and stick around into Wednesday morning. We could see more showers on Thursday but that second system could miss us as well. Morning lows during the middle of the week will only fall down to around 50° as the southerly winds will increase the dew point helping us stay warm.