Monday, April 6, 2009

Cold snap threatens record temperatures

Cover those plants or bring them indoors and make sure your pet's water bowls don't freeze over - it's gonna be a cold one tonight! (But maybe not quite like that picture!)

Thanks to a potent cold front, clouds hanging in all day today to keep it cold and clearing late tonight, plus decreasing wind tonight, it looks like we could be set up for near-record low temperatures by morning. This is 3 years in a row we've had an April cold snap, last year being producing similar temperatures on April 14-15 (see 2008 climate data) and 2007 setting the record for tomorrow's date (April 7) and the 8th (see 2007 climate data) when it got a few degrees colder than the current forecast. Tomorrow's record low is 30 degrees set in 2007. The coldest high temperature for this date is 41, which we have eclipsed by just a few degrees. Look for near freezing in the city center tonight, but for everyone else, upper 20s are in order and precautions will need to be taken. That is the reason for the FREEZE WARNING for the entire region tonight from midnight to 9am.

Fortunately, the Memphis metro area is staying out of today's precipitation, but not too far east of here, in middle TN and farther north, snow is falling! Looking ahead, tomorrow will be a little warmer than today (50s) thanks to more sun, another cool night is expected Tuesday night, with patchy frost in the suburbs, then the warm-up begins in earnest on Wednesday ahead of the next rain-maker on Thursday.

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