Audio clip
David Glenn
This week’s frigid temperatures should continue through the weekend and into next week, but Thanksgiving could bring warmer, more normal conditions, forecasters say.
“We’ve seen some temperatures that have been very much below normal over the last few days,” said David Glenn, chief meteorologist for WTVC-TV NewsChannel 9. “Saturday morning is going to be the coldest morning of the season so far, but as we go through the weekend, each afternoon will be just slightly milder.”
Earlier this week, temperatures were nearly 20 degrees cooler than normal, plunging into the 20s at night, when normal is 40, then struggling into the 40s during the day, when the normal high is about 60, according to weather experts.
Expect that trend to continue today, when the high will be in the upper 40s and the low will dip to the mid 20s, said Gregg Cole, a hydro-meteorological technician at the National Weather Service office in Morristown, Tenn. But it will be sunny, he said.
There’s a 20 percent chance of rain on Sunday, when temperatures warm to the mid 50s, said Mr. Cole, who predicted the low Sunday night will be in the mid 30s.
Monday will bring a mix of rain and cold weather, Mr. Glenn predicted. The National Weather Service shows a 50 percent chance of rain that day.
“I think the cool-down on Tuesday won’t be as bad as this week’s, but it will still be below normal,” Mr. Glenn said.
By Thanksgiving on Thursday, temperatures may warm, both Mr. Cole and Mr. Glenn said. Mr. Glenn puts temperatures at around 58 degrees for a Thanksgiving high and around 38 for the morning low. It should be partly cloudy, he said.
But the forecast is a bit fuzzy for Friday, when shoppers wake before sunrise to battle for Black Friday bargains and Chattanoogans gather that night for the downtown Grand Illumination and waterside parade of boats.
Mr. Glenn’s forecast calls for temperatures around 52 for a high and 38 for a low. He said there’s a chance for rain, possibly in the afternoon or evening. Mr. Cole put the chance for rain on Friday at about 20 percent.
“It’s a little iffy right now ... the early shoppers might be OK,” Mr. Glenn said. “But that’s seven days out, so the timing can be a big issue.”
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
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