William Callery spent Monday afternoon riding his bike around Coolidge Park. There was nothing unusual about it, except his decision to wear shorts in January.
“I think Tennessee weather’s always been really flaky,” said Mr. Callery, a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga student from Memphis. “But if it wasn’t warm today, I probably wouldn’t be out here on my bike, probably wouldn’t have cut my hair.”
As science devotes itself to explaining abrupt temperature shifts, meteorologists still understand Mr. Callery’s flaky weather issue.
Temperatures (measurements in degrees Fahrenheit)Monday’s high: 62Monday’s low: 36Record Chattanooga high and low temperatures for Jan. 18:High: 74, 1929Low: 6, 1977 and 1994Tuesday’s high: 61Tuesday’s low: 39Record Chattanooga high and low temperatures for Jan. 19:High: 69, 1907Low: 0, 1940Source: National Weather Service
“The first thing to kind of note is that it’s all about what your body gets used to,” said Allison Chinchar, NewsChannel 9 meteorologist. “Earlier this month, we were so below normal that, when you get highs in the low 60s like today, it feels that much warmer to you.”
Two weeks ago, calls for Tennessee Valley precipitation meant slick, icy driveways and a general increase in front-lawn snowman construction. Ms. Chinchar does not see that happening again for a while.
“When you have a lot of these rain systems coming in back to back,” said Ms. Chinchar, “it doesn’t allow for the temperatures to get very cold here because all that cloud cover helps the temperatures stay a little warmer than normal.”
Some meteorologists call the last two months an “El Nino winter,” which started with warmer ocean temperatures off the western coast of South America. The warmer water moves a higher number of precipitation systems toward the American South without a major drop in temperatures. The pattern indicates more balmy trends around Chattanooga, according to Ms. Chinchar.
“Even though anything after 10 days is practically a guess,” she said, “it’s a very educated guess to say that the warm El Nino pattern itself is going to continue at least until early March.”
That is good news for Marshall Brock, owner of Clumpies Ice Cream on Frazier Avenue. With slow business accompanying winter’s arrival, he recently decided to close on Mondays. He changed his mind Monday because of the sun.
“It’s been a very good decision,” said Mr. Brock. “We’ve been covered in business all day long. There’s lots of pent-up ice cream desire out there.”