Microbursts dropped out of severe thunderstorms.
Imagine a giant water balloon crashing to the ground. Now imagine you’re an ant on the ground. When that water hits the ground, it pushes wind away in all directions. Straight line winds race away from where the balloon hit and burst, knocking over trees. Microburst winds are intense. They aren’t tornadoes (no upward motion), but microbursts can do low-end tornado damage.
First things first, smoke and haze will continue today, as shown below, which has warranted an Air Quality Alert for both counties.
For the first time in a few days, our counties are not under a Heat Advisory, but it will still feel very hot and humid. Actual temperatures will be in the mid 90’s and dewpoints in the upper 60’s, which will lead to the heat index being in the upper 90’s. Make sure to drink plenty of H20 and limit your time in the direct sun.
Fog formed on area lakes and rivers overnight. Here’s the sat view of it mixing out.
Today watch for these signs.
A Heat Advisory starts at 11 AM and ends at 7 PM tonight. This means the temp/humidity combo will push the heat index/feels like temp to 105° in shaded areas. Much hotter in direct sunlight. Our local heat index should hit 107° in Nashville and 106° in Franklin. You know what to do. Take breaks, guzzle water, etc.
If I were to put “summer” in all caps, bold, underline, and italics, that’s what today will feel like. SUMMER. Heat index will almost reach 100, there is pretty much no chance of rain. At the time of writing this, we are not predicted to reach the heat index needed to issue a heat advisory (105), but we are very close. Highs in middle TN will vary in the 90s, and Nashville could hit 98.
Not a super wet Tuesday with only a couple scattered showers for this afternoon/evening. HRRR has storms popping in late afternoon and should be out of the area by 9pm. These storms may include lighting so lookout for that. Also expect quick downpours and gusts of winds. Will you get rained on? No one really knows. Rain is more likely south of 40 than north of 40. But either area could get rained or stormed on.
The NWS Blend of Models thinks our heat index will get to 101° this afternoon. That’s in the shade!
Dewpoint around 73° to 74° this afternoon.
Models thought we would see a line of storms here mid afternoon. That was yesterday’s models. Today it shows that line south of us. Some of us will probably see a few showers/storms pop off this morning (we have one already in Brentwood/Nolensville) and/or this afternoon from a weak upper level boundary, but the meat of the system should be south of us if the HRRR is right.
Air quality is improving. Most of the wildfire smoke cleared. It’s heavier northwest and southeast of us.
Today expect a miserable combination of temps and dewps. Like walking out into a tropical rainforest. NWS-Nashville issued the below Special Weather Statement for the heat. See below. Heat exhaustion is likely for those who ignore basic hydration, rest, and shade.
Early morning fog will have cleared by the time you are reading this, but only to give way to hazy skies we’ve gotten used to.
Wildfires are still raging in the Western US and Canada. Upper level winds are still transporting smoke all the way to our area. Today is probably the last day you can expect a Tatooine-esque sunrise or sunset. Smoke levels will start to decrease after this morning.
