Rainfall should bring considerable drought relief

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Since the beginning of summer 2024, News 2 meteorologists have been tracking drought conditions across parts of Middle Tennessee.
With the recent rains, and more to come this weekend, the question is: will areas see improvement?
Want the forecast delivered directly to your inbox? Sign up for the News 2 Forecast Newsletter
Thursday's data from the U.S. Drought Monitor does not show much of a change from last week. That's because it only took accounted for rainfall through 6 a.m. Tuesday when showers were just beginning.
However, next week's Drought Monitor will include Tuesday's and Wednesday's rain, as well as the large amount of rain expected this weekend, when parts of the area could receive anywhere from two to five inches of rainfall.
State Climatologist Dr. Andrew Joyner shared some thoughts about how he thinks the total rainfall might help out drought conditions.
'We've already received several inches of rain, especially south and east of Nashville,' Joyner said. 'Based on the QPF [Quantitative Precipitation Forecast], it looks like another maybe three-plus inches of rain to the north and west of Nashville. And then south and east, still looking at the one to two-inch range…I think we're looking at a much-improved drought situation.'
Significant rainfall could help clear out drought conditions in Middle TN
'I'm thinking that many areas, especially to the south and east of Nashville, are going to see at least one category improvements next week, with a few that have seen probably three to four inches or more of rain maybe seeing two categories of improvement,' Joyner said. 'So, maybe going from Extreme Drought, D-3 to maybe D-1, Moderate Drought. So, we'll see if that happens.'
The flip side is the potential for flooding of creeks and streams this weekend. A Flood Watch goes into effect at midnight Friday night and lasts through Sunday morning. Joyner has cautioned drivers about crossing roadways this weekend.
Turn around, don't drown.
Don't forget to take the power and reliability of the WKRN Weather Authority with you at all times by downloading the News 2 Storm Tracker app.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

4 days ago

• Yahoo

‘Heat dome' to bring hottest temperatures of the year to Middle Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The News 2 Weather Authority team is forecasting the hottest temperatures of the year to arrive for the start of summer. A 'heat dome' will bring extreme temperatures to the eastern half of the United States. The forecast for the first weekend of summer is for temperatures in the mid-90s and feels like temperatures over 100° from Saturday, June 21, through Wednesday, June 25. These high temperatures are caused by a heat dome. The term 'heat dome' is relatively new, but it does a great job of describing what's going to happen. FORECAST: Middle Tennessee & Southern Kentucky Weather A heat dome describes the impacts that a large, slow-moving area of high pressure has on the atmosphere. High pressure typically leads to sunny and dry weather. This is because high pressure causes sinking air, and the sinking causes the air to dry out and heat up. The sinking air also acts as a dome because it prevents the hottest air near the surface from escaping. This is why during prolonged heat domes, we can start to see air quality issues. For this event, the high pressure will move over us starting this weekend, and it won't exit until at least Wednesday or Thursday, June 26. Want the forecast delivered directly to your inbox? Sign up for the News 2 Forecast Newsletter This prolonged period of dry weather will cause the temperatures to get hotter and hotter. By the middle of next week, temperatures could be near 100°. It won't be a dry heat either. Thanks to all the rain we have seen this year, the humidity will remain very high. This will make it feel like over 105°! These extreme feels-like temperatures will prompt the National Weather Service to issue its first heat advisories of the year. It's unlikely, but if it gets even hotter, they will have to issue extreme heat warnings. With this extreme heat on the way, it is important to take safety precautions. Take frequent breaks, drink a lot of water, and know the difference if you are experiencing heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Don't forget to take the power and reliability of the WKRN Weather Authority with you at all times by downloading the News 2 Storm Tracker app. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Yahoo

5 days ago

• Yahoo

2025 Summer Outlook: What to expect in Middle Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Meteorological summer has already started, but the first day of summer isn't until Friday, June 20th. We all know that summer in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky is going to be hot and humid, but how hot will it get? During the average summer in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky, we see high temperatures and high humidity compared to folks to our north. The average high temperature for Nashville during the summer months gets as high as the low 90s. Lows are typically in the upper 60s and low 70s. The warm overnight temperatures are partially caused by the high humidity that's common here. Dew points are routinely in the 70s from June through August. This makes it feel even hotter. Want the forecast delivered directly to your inbox? Sign up for the News 2 Forecast Newsletter The Climate Prediction Center issues seasonal outlooks, and they are forecasting slightly warmer than normal temperatures from June through August. Their forecast is for near-average precipitation. The forecast for above-average temperatures is no surprise. Out of the last 10 summers in Nashville, 7 of them have featured warmer-than-normal temperatures. The precipitation trend is also above average. Eight out of the last 10 summers featured more rainfall than normal. This spring was the 5th wettest on record in Middle Tennessee. Let's look back at Nashville's wettest springs to see if it had any impact on what we saw in the summer. During the years that we had record rainfall during the spring, most of the following summers featured cooler-than-normal temperatures. This makes sense because a saturated ground favors higher humidity. Air with a lot of moisture in it takes more energy to heat up. There wasn't much correlation between record wet springs and summertime rainfall. But if you're tired of the rain, 6 out of 10 of those summers had below-average rainfall. ⏩ It's unlikely it will be as hot and as dry as last summer, but it will feel hot no matter what. The extreme heat and humidity start this weekend. The forecast for Saturday, June 21st, and Sunday, the 22nd, is for temperatures in the mid-90s and feels like temperatures over 100°. Don't forget to take the power and reliability of the WKRN Weather Authority with you at all times by downloading the News 2 Storm Tracker app. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Miami Herald

15-06-2025

• Miami Herald

Which parts of California are at highest wildfire risk this summer?

SAN JOSE, Calif. - After two years of devastating wildfire in 2020 and 2021, California experienced three relatively mild years in a row. But this year began with historic blazes in Los Angeles when months of extremely dry winter conditions combined with 100 mph Santa Ana winds, destroying more than 16,000 homes and killing 30 people in a disaster that shocked the nation. Does that mean California is in for another bad year as summer temperatures heat up and vegetation dries out? Not necessarily, fire experts say. But here's a clue: How much rain and snow fell during the previous winter? Since 1993, seven of the 10 worst fire years in California, ranked by total acres burned, have occurred after drier-than-normal winters. By contrast, eight of the state's 10 mildest fire years occurred after wetter-than-normal winters, according to an analysis by the Bay Area News Group and Golden Gate Weather Services, a Half Moon Bay company. "Generally, we see that wet years have fewer large fires" said Craig Clements, director of the Fire Weather Research Laboratory at San Jose State University. "And big years with lots of acres burned often come after dry winters. If you have less water and lower soil moisture, the plants dry out quicker and earlier in the season." To be sure, more grass grows after wet winters. And grass is flammable. But when trees and shrubs contain more moisture, experts say, it's more difficult for fires to spread quickly into out-of-control infernos. "Fire agencies always say it's going to be a bad fire year," said Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services, who has examined fire and rain patterns for decades. "If it's wet, they say there are a lot of fuels. If it's dry, they say everything is bone dry. But it can't be worse-than-normal every year." Null and Clements noted that unexpected variables, such as huge dry lightning storms, multiple arsonists or extreme wind events, can spike fire danger in any year. But generally speaking, wet winters lower wildfire risk and dry winters increase it. What does that mean this year? It's a tale of two states. Northern California received much more rain and snow this winter than Southern California. From Oct. 1 through Thursday, Santa Rosa received 123% of its historical average, while San Francisco was at 87% and Los Angeles was at just 58%. San Diego was even lower, at 48%. While none of the nine Bay Area counties are currently classified as being in any kind of drought, all of Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Diego is, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly federal report. "We are expecting high fire activity in Southern California," said Battalion Chief Jess Torres, a spokesman for Cal Fire, the state's main firefighting agency. "We have vegetation that is drying out more and more. Southern California could potentially be worse than Northern California. But we don't want people to let their guard down anywhere." After the Los Angeles fires, state lawmakers introduced a dozen bills aimed at increasing readiness and wildfire response. One of the main bills, SB 581, by Sen. Mike McGuire, a Santa Rosa Democrat, would convert roughly 3,000 seasonal Cal Fire firefighters who work nine months a year to full-time staff. That bill, which would cost about $175 million a year, passed the state Senate 39-0 this month with support from Republicans and Democrats. It now goes to the Assembly. Cal Fire also continues to expand. The agency has nearly doubled its fire protection staff since 2019, from 5,829 to 10,741 positions, and nearly doubled its fire protection budget from $2 billion to $3.8 billion. In April, Cal Fire rolled out a new C-130 Hercules cargo plane, a massive former Coast Guard aircraft retrofitted to carry 4,000 gallons of fire retardant - more than triple the capacity of the other tankers that Cal Fire has been using for years. The agency also has been acquiring new Nighthawk helicopters, which can drop water and fire retardant at night. Working with the University of California, San Diego, Cal Fire has helped create a system of 1,144 remote video cameras perched statewide on hills and mountain tops to detect wildfires, called ALERTCalifornia. Using AI, the cameras report fires to emergency dispatchers, sometimes faster than humans do, and can complete 360-degree sweeps every two minutes out to 60 miles away. Firefighters say that it's critical every year that homeowners clear brush and flammable materials away from their homes. "Give us a fighting chance to save your home or business," said Matt Thau, a battalion chief with the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department. There are other concerns. Climate change has made heat waves and droughts more severe. The 10 hottest years on record globally since 1880 all have occurred since 2014, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. President Donald Trump's administration fired 3,400 workers at the U.S. Forest Service - about 10% of the agency's staff - in February as part of Elon Musk's DOGE cuts. Since then, the administration has reduced Forest Service staffing by another 4,000 people through early retirement offers. Firefighters have been exempt from those cuts. But many "red cards" - employees who hold certifications for firefighting skills and can deploy during major wildfires - have left, some taking early retirement or let go as probationary employees as part of an effort to trim the federal workforce. Tom Schultz, a former timber industry executive whom Trump named to run the Forest Service, has asked some of those workers to come back. On Wednesday, Schultz told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee not to worry. "I do believe they're ready," Schulz told Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "When it comes to the wildfire season, yes ma'am, we do have the critical folks in place." California has 18 national forests in the Sierra Nevada, Big Sur, and mountains around Los Angeles, covering 20 million acres, or one-fifth of the state. Murray and other Democratic senators were skeptical. "The stakes are life and death here," Murray said. "It feels like we are not prepared for this wildfire season. You just said we were. We'll see what happens. But I fear I'm going to be right." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.