Making Sense Of Our Weather

8:32 pm update.........
**PUTNAM COUNTY SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED ON TUESDAY, December 2nd, 2008**

Ok, let's talk about today's weather.  The result, while disappointing to a lot of us, was right on track to what the National Weather Service had predicted.  I have the benefit of being able to 'look back' on their forecasts..here is what it said for today..Monday, December 1st, 2008 for right here in Cookeville, TN.

TODAY...SNOW SHOWERS LIKELY. COLD. LITTLE OR NO SNOW ACCUMULATION. HIGHS IN THE MID 30S. WEST WINDS 15 TO 20 MPH. CHANCE OF SNOW 60 PERCENT.

Our afternoon high was 36.4° and we had no accumulation, but certainly had periods of snow showers.  So, even though we didn't get a nice dusting, it was great to see the snow fall.  The reason we didn't see a dusting to one inch of snow was due to our daytime temperatures being too warm for the snow to stick.  Drop us about 5° and we would have had a completely different scenario.

Speaking of snow, had an opportunity to speak with Keith, the Nat'l Weather Service's Cooperative Observer in Monterey, TN and he told me they had snow showers most of the day and at times, had slippery road conditions. They recorded .5" of snow in his morning observation, but also commented they had 1 inch of snow on the ground as of 4:45 pm.  They could possibly end up with as much as an additional inch overnight.   Monterey never got any higher than 33° today and was colder than that most of the day.

With all that being said, here is our:
*Latest, Local Forecast*

I do want everyone to note we are in a very cold pattern for the first week of December.  Typically, our normals this time of year are lower 50's for highs and lower 30's for lows.  We are going to struggle to get in the 40's for highs during a few days this week.