Fluttering Back And Forth From Warm To Cool.

I have several shots of different butterflies on this lilac bush. And considering this plant is only about 3 feet tall and about 3 feet around, it's amazing how much drawing power these tiny flowers have. Seems like bees and butterflies are constantly swarming this feeding station while it's in bloom. So I'll post quite a few, as these little critters were very co-operative with this over sized shutter-bug.
We have been fluttering back and forth from warm to cool the last couple of weeks. That tidbit wouldn't raise that many eyebrows considering it is Spring, but when you look at where we've been it's interesting.
For example let's look at daytime highs in Chattanooga compared to average:

• In March 18 days above normal, 13 days below
• In April 25 days above normal, 5 days below
• In May 3 days above normal, 5 days below

What makes this interesting to me is the turn-around that appears to be shaping up in May compared to April. I know it's still early, but it appears that an eastern U.S. trough may keep temps a bit cooler than average for the next couple of weeks. Not to the extreme that temps were above average in April, but cooler than average by 5 degrees or so. We'll still have some warmer than normal days stuck in there, but I think it will be interesting to see the May numbers at the end of the month.

Short term: We have a lot of low clouds across the area this morning which will begin to break up this afternoon. We're warmer this morning, so I think we'll end up around 78 today with just a 20% for an isolated storm popping up. Mostly cloudy tonight with a slim chance for a shower or storm overnight. Look for lows by daybreak around 63.

Wednesday: Showers and storms mainly from afternoon into the nighttime hours. There is some potential for a few strong to severe storms, but no big outbreak expected. Rainfall should end fairly early Thursday morning with average amounts between 3/4" to 1".

Thursday: Decreasing clouds throughout the day, breezy and a bit cooler with highs in the low to mid 70s.

Friday and Saturday: Partly Cloudy skies with morning lows in the upper 40s, and daytime highs in the lower 70s. (Again with partly cloudy conditions, those highs are a tad cool for the time of year.)

After that model mayhem rules, but troughiness seems to stay in the east. We'll see.