Sunfish And Scattered Showers

Another shot from down under in The Tennessee River. A pretty friendly bluegill and if you click on the picture and see it full-sized, you'll notice there's two sunfish in the picture. This guy was a little better than hand-sized, and I have a fairly large hand. As long as I'm showing fish, and about to talk heat, I'm reminded of Durwood Graham a former skywatcher when I was out in Texas. This Texas rancher called me one time to tell me it was so hot fishing one afternoon even the fish were sweating. In West Texas that's what they call H-O-Tee-Tee hot. We haven't been quite that bad lately. In fact if you were up and out early enough, you know the morning hours have been downright nice. Danny Stewart our Channel 3 Skywatcher from Coalmont, TN had 50 this morning. But it shot up to 90 this afternoon at his house! You only get that kind of range when the air and ground is dry. And we have been extremely dry this year. How dry???
It was so dry the grasshoppers were on the power lines sucking the juice out of them. (Another West Texas one-liner.) This is the driest first half of June in the past 10 years:

• 2005 4.00"
• 2004 1.12"
• 2003 3.45"
• 2002 1.85"
• 2001 3.64"
• 2000 1.05"
• 1999 1.44"
• 1998 4.90"
• 1997 3.33"
• 1996 2.17"
• Average rainfall June 1st through 15th: 1.95"

This streak may go back even further, but that's as deep into the records as I could dive without a mandatory climatological decompression stop.

But hear ye, hear ye. Wetter times may be ahead.

I still think most of us stay dry this weekend, but an isolated storm still can't be ruled out. Especially over the Cumberland Plateau to our west and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east.

Saturday and Father's Day - Hazy sunshine with highs near 90 and a 20% chance for an isolated afternoon storm.

Monday - Partly cloudy, hot and humid with highs near 88. But we should see scattered storms developing. Chance of rain is 40%.

Tuesday - 30% chance for some scattered afternoon and evening storms. Highs near 90.

Wednesday - Chances for showers drop off to around 20% with highs back up around 93.

Happy Father's Day to all! I hope you get a chance to tell Dad what he's meant to you.