AP, staff reports
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009 10:42 pm
From AP, staff reports
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009 10:42 pm
From AP, staff reports
Severe storms that spawned a 101 mph wind gust in the Smoky Mountains lashed out at much of Tennessee Wednesday, washing out roads around Chattanooga and toppling the state Capitol Christmas tree in Nashville ahead of a dry, cold air system.
In northwest Tennessee, temperatures overnight dipped to 17 degrees, according to a spokesman at the National Weather Service in Memphis.
“It’s going to stay mostly clear skies and temperatures tonight are going to be the coldest — 15 degrees,” said meteorologist Marlene Mickelson. “Today’s high up there is not going to make it to much higher than 35 and there’ll be a low of 15 tonight. Friday it’ll start to moderate. Temps will reach the lower 40s.”
But at least there’s no rain in the forecast — until Saturday, anyway. Nothing major, at that.
“Then finally, it’ll get more toward normal temperatures Saturday and Sunday with highs in the mid-40s to around 50,” she said.
High winds
National Park Service spokesman Nancy Gray said the wind averaged 70 mph at the Cove Mountain Air Quality Station on the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and included a 101 mph gust in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday, downing trees and closing some roads. The station’s elevation is 4,150 feet.
She said such a strong gust was not unprecedented but “pretty unusual.”
In Nashville, Capitol facilities supervisor Kenny Crowson said an employee reported the Christmas tree in front of the Capitol had fallen about 4 a.m. Wednesday, with the top part apparently broken and the lights still burning.
“There was a lot of hard work putting it up,” Crowson said.
Officials were looking for another tree and said it would be better secured.
Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher moved practice indoors Wednesday afternoon in Nashville because it was so gusty.
“The wind was extreme. We wouldn’t have gotten anything done,” he said.
Gusts gone
In Nashville, National Weather Service forecaster John Cohen said Wednesday that the gusts were easing, but likely not enough to avoid a nighttime wind chill as low as 17. Cohen said Thursday’s high temperature in Nashville would be about 36, dipping to the low 20s Thursday night and rebounding to the low 40s on Friday.
In Nashville, National Weather Service forecaster John Cohen said Wednesday that the gusts were easing, but likely not enough to avoid a nighttime wind chill as low as 17. Cohen said Thursday’s high temperature in Nashville would be about 36, dipping to the low 20s Thursday night and rebounding to the low 40s on Friday.
Cohen said Nashville’s normal low temperature this time of year is 30 and the normal high is 50.
More lows
In Memphis, NWS forecaster Douglas Vogelsang said the air was not the coldest of the season. He said nighttime lows were expected to remain in the 20s, with a daytime high Thursday in the upper 30s before a Friday warmup.
The storms early Wednesday caused flash flooding and blocked some roads with downed trees, mud and rocks around Chattanooga. Some brief evacuations were reported in low-lying areas. On Signal Mountain, a Chattanooga suburb, the storm washed out all but one lane of the main route used by commuters.
A rock slide temporarily blocked State Route 27 at Suck Creek Mountain and some flash flooding from more than 3.5 inches of rain washed out other roads and closed numerous schools across East Tennessee. The rock slide is at least the fourth in East Tennessee and western North Carolina to block traffic in recent months.
Weather Service forecaster Tim Doyle said in Morristown that the wind gusts in East Tennessee, western North Carolina, northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama would ease by Thursday. He said low temperatures Thursday night would range from near freezing in low elevations to possible single digits in the Smokies, with dry conditions continuing until a possibility of rain or snow after midnight Friday, followed by warming on Saturday.
The arrival of cold air in West Tennessee had temperatures across the state ranging from 31 at Union City to 61 in Chattanooga on Wednesday morning.
.