A Great Weekend. Cold Stuff Ahead.

Saturday morning was a chilly one for all the people who volunteered for the 18th Annual Tennessee River Rescue. The air temperature was 53 degrees at 8 am with Northeast winds at 10 mph making it feel like it was in the 40s. But the water was a full 20 degrees warmer and felt downright toasty. Nearly 60 divers came out to clean up this year, and I think the on-shore folks had a great turnout as well. Once again a lot of plastic cups and bottles out there, but fortunately most of the bottles were not broken. My dive buddy John Ingram and I pulled up two bags of garbage, one tire, and one boat ladder. It looked like most of the dive teams were averaging two bags of garbage as well. Think about this, the swimming area near the Chickamauga Dam has been cleaned by divers 3 times in the last year. Last October for the river rescue, last April on Earth Day, and Saturday. And three trailers were pretty full with garbage after Saturday's diving was done. So either this ONE spot was horribly polluted, or people have been very efficient litterbugs since April. I sure hope it's just a pile that's getting smaller rather than a never ending case of laziness. I'll post a few more pictures over the next few days.
Our weather will be swinging up and down rather wildly this week. I'm going to have to put my brother in Northern Illinois on snow watch. They might see some before the week is out. This would be wayyyyyyyyyyy earlier for them. But I can remember some rather chilly nights when you needed a heavy coat trick-or-treating. But I don't recall any with flurries flying. For us, we should see above normal warmth today and tomorrow, scattered storms Wednesday and Thursday, with colder conditions taking over Thursday and Friday. I better have the Fall heating checkup taken care of this week.

Today: Mostly sunny and warmer. High: 80

Tuesday: Partly cloudy and pleasant. High: 82

Wednesday: Clouds increase with scattered showers and storms. Some could be strong to possibly severe. High: 76

Thursday: Scattered showers and a few storms. High: 69

Friday morning's low: 42

Friday: Partly cloudy, cold and breezy. High: Near 60, but a lot of locations may stay in the 50s. With wind, that will feel pretty chilly much of the day.