NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — Middle Tennessee is wrapping up one of the warmest winters of the last 150 years.
Forecaster Trevor Boucher at the National Weather Service office in Nashville notes the meteorological winter was much warmer and a bit wetter than usual.
December through February averaged 4 degrees above the 30-year norm. Precipitation was 2.5 inches above normal for the period. The coldest reading of the winter was 17 degrees, recorded Feb. 1.
Spring officially arrives March 20, but Boucher says we’ve already turned the meteorological corner.
“We’re going to start seeing the temperatures come up and stay up rather than dive back down to the 20s and have freezing temperatures for prolonged periods of time. It’s looking like right now that even this weekend we’re going to have temperatures that could be in the 70s, which would finally get us back into more spring-like type weather."
Of course those warmer temperatures come with an increased chance of severe weather. Boucher says the weather service is offering what it calls SkyWarn Spotter Training in all 39 Middle Tennessee Counties.
“And what this does is provide you awareness and you can identify what is severe and what isn’t from your own eyes; be able to look a little bit at the radar and have an educated idea of what’s going on. Then at the same time, give you the information that you would need to report back to the weather back to the Weather Service so that you could help us issue warnings and watches."
You can find a list of training dates and times on the Weather Service website.