Chattanooga weather will ebb and flow this week

Lauren Dziadyk holds her daughter Bayla's hand as her friend Melanie Reese walks in front of her with her son Jameson, 5, during a stroll along Riverwalk on Tuesday. Despite the rain, Dziadyk, Reese and their children enjoyed the time outside. Reese and Bayla plucked wet leaves and sticks from the sidewalk to play with.

Photo by Jenna Walker.

About 12 hours into Tuesday, Chattanooga had received 83 times the rainfall the city recorded for the entire month of August.

Of course, 0.83 inches does not generate "monsoon" headlines, but it was torrential compared to August's paper-thin rainfall total of 0.01 inch. However, it was nothing compared to Labor Day's 10-inch, record-busting gully washer that forced evacuations, canceled school and caused wreck after wreck.

Trivial measurements or not, Tuesday's rainfall put a sleepy haze over the Tennessee Valley as forecasters predicted about an inch of rain for the whole day.

Derek Eisentrout, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Morristown, Tenn., said the moisture over the city would be pulled northward by this morning, resulting in 60-degrees-and-dry conditions until another round of showers pops up Thursday.

"Spring and fall are transition seasons. They can go from one [extreme] to the other," Eisentrout said. "Nothing too absolute."

But WRCB-TV Channel 3 meteorologist David Karnes saw a light at the end of the tunnel, predicting ideal conditions as the workweek draws to a close.

"All weekend we will have sunshine and highs in the mid-70s," Karnes wrote on WRCB's website.

Connect with the Times Free Press on Facebook