Cheatham County Exchange
ASHLAND CITY WEATHER

Seasons affect possibility, amount of rain




Steve Norris

Steve Norris

I see pretty much the same weather pattern for the next two weeks: Partly cloudy, hot and humid each day with scattered thunderstorms.

Pretty typical for August as it is known for heat and humidity and thunderstorms. There is more cloud-to-ground lightning in August than any other month in Middle Tennessee. High temperatures will be in the upper 80s to low 90s and it’s going to be rather humid. I look for this weather pattern through August 15.  

Sunrise is 5:55 a.m. and sunset 7:52 p.m. About the only thing of interest in our night sky is Jupiter continuing to be bright to the south after sunset.

Let’s talk about rain probabilities because they can be very misleading.

I am a radio meteorologist also and I prefer to use terms such as isolated, scattered, numerous and likely. People use the forecast to plan their day and if you hear 20 percent chances, most of the time you think “Oh, it’s not going to rain” and you hear 80 percent and you think “Wow, it’s going to be coming down hard all day.”

We often get a 20 percent chance during summer days but in the form of scattered heavy thunderstorms so if you get hit by one you may get an inch of rain. Days when there is an 80 percent chance usually come in the winter and often it comes in the form of a steady light rain.  

Notice in my forecast above I talked about scattered thunderstorms because they will be hit-and-miss, but the ones that develop will be heavy. So, when you hear rain probabilities don’t associate it with how much rain you’re going to get but how much of the day we’ll probably see rain that is measurable.

Steve Norris is certified by the National Weather Association and provides information to Emergency Management Agencies in many counties in Tennessee. You may contact him at weather1@charter.net with questions or suggest topics for his column.

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