Claudette Helping Provide Rain Today...More Tomorrow

The outflow from what is left of Tropical Depression Claudette appear to be aiding in the development of scattered rain showers across middle Tennessee and western Kentucky this afternoon. These showers, while numerous are very small in areal size and shouldn't last more than a few minutes. However, most will probably be very heavy rain producers while they are in the area.

A cold frontal boundary to the northwest of us is expected to continue to slide southeastward tonight and tomorrow, slowing as it does. The front should be close enough to bring greater coverage of rain tomorrow as it works with the remnants of Claudette and the enhanced moisture it brings. An upper level wave will move in Thursday and should push the front far enough south that some of us, especially to the north will dry out by Friday, but Thursday will probably be the wettest of the work week. I don't see any obvious indicators of widespread flooding with Claudette in this area, but a few areas might see some localized problems, especially by Thursday. Most areas will probably see between 0.25 and 0.50 inches of rain total.

Hurricane Bill was upgraded last night as it gained intensity over the open Atlantic Ocean. The storm is projected to continue to slowly intensify over the next few days. Most major intensity projections call for the storm to reach category 3 or 4 status by the time it passes east of the Bahamas on Friday. The HWRF computer model actually calls for the storm to reach above the limits of category 5 with an intensity of 911mb with winds over 160 mph by Saturday morning. Hard to know if this would be the case but it will be interesting to see. At this point it still looks to move east of the United States, but the northeastern portions of the U.S. should probably be monitoring this storm over the next few days to make sure that there are no changes. Bermuda may end up taking a direct, or near direct hit from this storm if the current track projections maintain.