NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — We are looking to later this week for potential strong to severe thunderstorms in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky on Friday and Saturday. While still many days out, we want to give you an early alert as the dynamic setup will be the most favorable our region has seen in a while.
Severe Outlook
Since the risk is still 5 to 6 days out, the Storm Prediction Center only issues Slight Risk (15%) and Enhance Risk (30%) areas. All Middle Tennessee counties are in the Slight Risk either on Friday, Saturday, or both.
It is important to note that there remain many uncertainties at this point. However, Gulf moisture will be quite high, wind energy is projected to be strong, available instability is decent and we have a front to aid in thunderstorm development. Better model data will arrive Wednesday into Thursday to show us a better prediction of our environment for the storms. All threats will be possible.
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Future Tracker
Let’s look at the weather for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
On Thursday, rain chances jump up to 30% to 40% during the day. Area showers and isolated thunderstorms are possible, but no severe weather is expected. Clouds hopefully decrease to see the Total Lunar Eclipse on Friday early morning.
On Friday, most of the day is dry with high temperatures in the 70s to lower 80s. South wind increasing and Gulf moisture moving on. By Friday night into the early hours of Saturday, rain and storms will be increasing. This first wave of storms may be in its weakening phase as it moves toward central Middle Tennessee.
Saturday midday and afternoon with more sufficient Gulf moisture, instability, wind shear, and an approaching cold front, storms could be more robust and severe in our region.
While storms could be strong to severe on Friday night into Saturday morning, we also have strong wind gusts increasing for our region.
The key takeaway: keep updated on our latest forecast. All severe weather ingredients are available for severe storms on Friday night through Saturday night. There will be wind gusts of 30-50 mph at times. Saturday could feature the greatest chance of severe weather.
Stay tuned for additional updates. More model data that can give us a finer detail of the severe risk will be available by Wednesday and Thursday.
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.
