Warming Up

NICE AND SUNNY:
If you like warmer weather in the winter, you'll love the next couple of days. I expect plenty of sunshine and temperatures to be 60° today (Monday) across the Highlands of Tennessee. On Tuesday, expect even warmer temperatures with highs near 65° in Cookeville coupled with increasing clouds along with gusty southerly winds.

CHANGES TO THE BLOG:
Your eyes are not deceiving you...I do have some changes to the blog in terms of color, font, and small change to the layout. We'll have more changes in the coming days.


RAIN RETURNING:
Rain shows up on Tuesday night and will hang around all the way through the early weekend as a pattern change will affect our weather.

ARCTIC AIR TO MAKE IT'S RETURN:
In Saturday's post we discussed the very cold air in Alaska and this will eventually filter it's way down to the mainland of the United States and affect our weather.  We do think temperatures will go back to more seasonal highs for winter as we get to the weekend with the possibility of a return to winter-type conditions. That, however, is a quite a distance out and things do change in Tennessee quickly.

*Latest Local Forecast*

SPOTTER TRAINING CLASS:
Next Saturday, February 4th is the 2012 SkyWarn Spotter Training Class in Cookeville. It will be held at the TTU College of Nursing Auditorium located at 10 W. 7th Street in Cookeville. The class is free and expected to last around 2 hours. Both the beginner and intermediate classes will be taught so if you've never been through training or if you've not attended in a couple of year, I encourage you to go!

Warmer With Sunshine Each Day

Sunshine is the key word for the next several days. A benefit from the sunshine is that we'll see warmer temperatures as we progress through the week. There is a great explanation of the Arctic Oscillation and how when it turns POSITIVE that we see warmer winter weather.

As you might imagine, the Arctic Oscillation has been in the negative phase during most of our winter. We're also in a 'La Nina' weather and that typically gives us a warmer, wetter winter. For the 2010-2011 winter, this has not been the case. I believe our weather is more closely associated with our short term weather.   More on this phenomenon is available at the NWS-Southern Region HQ web site.

*Latest Local Forecast*

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