Middle Tennessee Weather News

Weatherman Celebrates Twenty-Fifth Anniversary as Meteorologist in Charge of The Weather Forecast Office in Nashville

Wednesday April 25, 2003 marked the twenty fifth anniversary of tenure for Derrel R. Martin, Meteorologist in Charge of the National Weather Service for the forty two Counties of Middle Tennessee. Martin has been a weatherman since 1956. He served at numerous weather offices around the Southern Region and one hitch in Washington DC before coming to Middle Tennessee.

He attributes the tenure to the challenge of the weather in the area. Each morning that you arrive at work there is a new challenge on the horizon. Middle Tennessee is blessed with a good four seasons and a mild climate that is second to none that exist. If you don’t like a certain weather phenomenon, then just wait a little while and there will be a change. Maybe you will like the next weather event. The people here, are nice and friendly and make you feel at home. I think part of the friendliness comes because of the excellent weather of Middle Tennessee. “Better Weather, Happier People.”

Martin related that many changes that have occurred in the field of meteorology since he became a weatherman. To begin with, there was no weather radar, no computers and no weather satellite to assist in the every day weather predicting. There was an attempt to use some radars that had been used in World War two for military purpose. These radars were converted to weather detection radars. They proved so valuable for storm detection that the WSR-57 Radars were developed in 1957. These were the backbone of the storm detection over the net 30 odd years until the NEXRAD Doppler 88D Radar was developed in the late 80's and deployed during the 90's.

While the WSR-57 was a good radar, it cannot compare to the ability of the NEXRAD Radar. We can now see into the storms and estimate wind speed. We have certain signatures that indicate the possibility of a tornado, large hail or damaging winds. With the old radar, basically all you could see was a glob of precipitation.

The coming of the computer era made a tremendous change in the way weather prediction was done. With the computers it was possible to do atmospheric analysis in a matter of minutes. This time consuming job had taken days and in some cases weeks before a final analysis could be made. Needless to say, by the time that the analysis was computed by hand the weather event was over and the system was somewhere over the Atlantic..

The satellite allowed us to track the weather patterns around the world. In doing so we discovered that some of the weather systems movement, that we had postulated from the weather maps, were true. We also discovered that a few of them were completely wrong. The satellite gave us insight that we had never had before.

In the early days, we were doing good to predict the next six or seven hours. Now we are predicting out to six and seven days. We even have outlooks that go to 90 days. The predictions have pretty good reliability for the first two days and a somewhat reliable outlook for the next five after that. Weather patterns have changed over the last half century. Systems now move differently than they did in the mid fifties. These systems move more rapidly and therefore create an ever changing environment.

The most significant weather event in Nashville during my tenure was the April 16th tornado outbreak in 1998. We stood outside the office watching the tornado as it moved toward the Northeast passing within a quarter mile of the office.

There have been many changes in weather prediction during my career but all the changes have been to the good. They have given us the ability to make better predictions of the weather and to supply the public with guidelines that they can use in making their everyday plans as they go through life.

NOAA Weather Radio Continues to Expand across Middle Tennessee

NOAA Weather Radio, the voice of the National Weather Service, will continue to expand its coverage across middle Tennessee. Toward the end of fiscal year 2002, the Lobelville and Centerville transmitters were added, bringing the transmitter total to 8 across the mid state. Since that time (during the current 2003 fiscal year), two additional transmitters have been added. These are located near Winchester and Spencer. As of this newsletter, a total of 10 weather radio transmitters are in full 24 hour-a-day operation.

The Winchester transmitter provides coverage for Bedford, Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, Lincoln, and Moore Counties in Tennessee. It also covers Madison and Jackson Counties in northeast Alabama. The Spencer transmitter provides coverage for Cumberland, Dekalb, Putnam, Warren, White, and Van Buren Counties of Tennessee.

In the near future, an 11th transmitter is scheduled near Hickman, which is about 40 miles east of Nashville, in southern Smith County.

Because of the multitude of transmitters in the area now, many of our listeners may be able to listen to weather radio on different frequencies. Therefore, it's important to stay tuned to a transmitter that targets your particular county for the necessary weather information. These target counties are included in all long indentification announcements that you hear once an hour when listening to our programming.

We at the National Weather Service would like to thank all of our listeners for tuning in. Keep them ears on!

-- John Cohen, Meteorologist

May, 2003 Second-Wettest on Record

Aside from all the tornadoes and severe weather which ravaged the mid state last month, this May will also go down as the second-wettest May in Nashville's history. With 10.73 inches of rainfall measured at Nashville's International Airport, including a remarkable 7.49 inches during the three-day stretch of the 5th through the 7th, last month's precipitation total is exceeded only in the record books by the 11.04 inches received during May, 1983.

The heavy rainfall reached its zenith on May 5, when 4.63 inches of rain fell. This established a new one-day rainfall record for the month of May. The 2.52 inches received on the 7th also set a new rainfall record for that day.

Nothing Unusual Expected This Summer

The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center forecasts a normal summer for most of middle Tennessee. The seasonal forecast calls for a warmer than normal summer for the deep south, with slightly above normal temperatures reaching as far north as the Tennessee Valley. But the bulk of the mid state should experience near normal temperatures and rainfall. The seasonal outlook covers the months of June, July, and August. You can visit the Climate Prediction Center for a full suite of seasonal outlooks.

If you will recall, last summer at Nashville was warmer than normal by approximately 1.6 degrees. The peak temperature was 97 degrees on August 5. Rainfall during the three-month period totaled 12.53 inches, which was 1.40 inches above normal.

NWS Announces Career Day for June 20

The National Weather Service will host its first ever career day on Friday, June 20th. This workshop will be aimed primarily at high school students considering a career in meteorology, but no one is discouraged from attending. Although details still have to be worked out, the one-day workshop will consist of an office tour, a presentation on basic meteorology, a discussion on the importance of atmospheric research with regards to operational meteorology, a demonstration on how a forecast is developed, and what exactly goes into the forecast. If you wish to attend career day, please send an e-mail. Details and directions to the office will be posted on our website closer to June 20.

New On-line Storm Reporting Form

Michael Davis, the Information Technology Officer at the National Weather Service in Old Hickory, recently launched a method for sending storm reports to the weather service via the internet. The new storm reporting form allows the public to send pertinent information to warning meteorologists by delivering details of observed severe weather right to the meteorologists' workstation. The meteorologist can then review the information, make necessary edits, then disseminate the storm report to other NWS offices, including the Storm Prediction Center.

If a storm report is sent to the NWS at the time of the event, it can then be posted to the warning meteorologist in near-real time. As such, relevent information can be integrated into the actual warning process by providing verification of a warning already in effect, prompting a supplemental severe weather statement to relay the storm report to the public and media, or necessitating a new warning altogether.

Meteorologists were introduced to the online system during the massive severe weather outbreak on May 5, and it proved hugely successful. Although the NWS still relies on emergency services provided by amateur radio operations over the K4OHX repeater system, as well as telephone reports of severe weather, the online system has proven it can be just as valuable.

Photograph of the Quarter

Once again, there were many worthwhile weather related photographs. Despite all the severe weather and flooding middle Tennessee experienced during May, the following picture of a cloud circle makes this issue's photograph of the quarter.

This image was taken on March 4 by Doug Helms, and was relayed to the NWS by Joe Case of Fox News 17. This picture was taken from Nashville. We don't have an explanation for this one. Just enjoy it and comfort yourself with the understanding that sometimes these things happen.

The next photograph was made by David R. Knapp last November 10, who writes "This is a view from southeast of Nashville looking toward the southwest as the storm was at this time well southwest of Murfreesboro. This was one of the cells that trained over Cumberland and Morgan Counties and went tornadic two or three hours later."

This photograph was sent to us from Greg Bearden in Columbia. The location is the intersection of Riverside Drive and Carter Street. At the time the Duck River stage was 44.81 feet, or 12.81 feet above flood stage.

Mike Varry contributed a photograph taken of Percy Priest Dam on May 7 following several days of heavy rainfall.

Finally, Sharon Prince, a very active spotter from Huntland, sent us a collection of images, of which this is one. She writes, "...we finally dried out enough to allow area farmers to cut hay."

If you have a unique weather photograph you would like to share, please either e-mail it to the editor, or send it to National Weather Service, 500 Weather Station Rd., Old Hickory, TN 37138, Attn: Mark A. Rose. If you mail your photograph(s), we will scan them and mail them right back.