Wow Whatta Storm! Gusts Cause Damage Here.

Thanks this morning to Regina Akins of Ringgold, GA for sending me this picture. It was taken by her sister Charlotte who lives in Wewoka, Oklahoma. And as you can see, the scene was snowy there last evening. Wet snow has been falling heavily across the Midwest overnight causing a lot of travel problems especially at Chicago's O'hare airport.
Wind was the big story here this morning, bringing down trees and power lines across the area. Here are a few of the peak wind gusts recorded by some automated weather stations:

• Lookout Mountain 65 mph
• Indian Grave, Blount County, TN 50 mph
• Coker Creek, TN 46 mph
• Prentice Cooper WMA 47 mph
• Cohutta, GA & Ft. Payne, AL 45 mph
• Murphy, NC 38 mph
• WRCB-TV3 38 mph

A huge temperature range is helping to create these strong winds. Before sunrise when we were tying a record high of 71 it was 31 in Memphis. We had several hours of 71 at Chattanooga's Lovell Field, so we might have broken that record. Yesterday's 74 also broke the record for Thursday.

Need to catch your breath? We'll do that with a quiet and cool weekend.

Jed, LaTrice and I hope to see everyone Downtown Chattanooga Saturday night for The Holiday Starlight Parade which begins at 6pm. It should be a nice and fairly mild evening with a temperature around 52 when the parade begins. And we should only fall into the low 40s when the music wraps up in front of The Tennessee Aquarium later in the evening. Hats off to the Downtown Partnership for putting together another great family event that should be packed with people. See you then!

Today: Mostly cloudy, windy and colder. WNW wind 15 to 25 mph and gusty. The official high was recorded before sunrise....a record tying 71. But temperatures will fall into the 40s by this afternoon.

Tonight: Clearing and cold. North 5 - 10 Low: 30

Saturday: Mostly sunny, cool. North 5 - 10 High: 54

Sunday: Partly cloudy, cool. High: 56

Monday: Mostly sunny but chilly. High: 45

Tuesday: Mostly sunny. High: 52