NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WMOT) -- Summer officially gets underway Tuesday evening and the new season could start with a bang for Middle Tennessee residents.
A tropical storm moves out of the Gulf and into Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana beginning Tuesday. Forecasters say some coastal communities could see as much as 15 inches of rain from the system.
Scott Unger with the National Weather Service office in Nashville says that rain will push into the mid-state late this week.
“Thursday Friday and Saturday we could be seeing maybe three to four inches of rain through that time frame as this tropical system comes up from the Gulf and starts to move into Middle Tennessee. So it’s going to be a wet end of the week and a wet start for the weekend.”
Once we get by this week’s unusual storms, Unger says the Weather Service’s seasonal forecast for summer 2017 doesn’t hold any big surprises.
“The three month outlook that our Climate Prediction Center puts out of having temperatures that should be above average through the beginning of the summer here, and rather normal chances for rain.”
Unger says that while heavy rains are the main threat from the storms later this week, Middle Tennessee could also experience some severe storms as the tropical system collides with a cold front.
He suggests that mid-state residents keep an eye on the forecast as the week progresses.