Cold Weather Absent So Far Due To La Nina

The Pacific Ocean is keeping the colder winds of fall away from the Upper Cumberland so far.

Nashville National Weather Service Meteorologist Sam Herron said a weather pattern called La Nina continues to influence our weather. Colder water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean are affecting the jet stream that comes across the United States.

“We still have weather and things change day-to-day,” Herron said. “It gets warmer and colder but overall the jet stream position is farther north and so that kind of locks the cold air in up over Canada and keeps it from impacting our area.”

Herron said warm temperatures are not unexpected this time of year, but how long they have lasted is surprising. Herron said that we can expect more above normal temperatures throughout the rest of November and even heading into early December.

“I think a lot of places have maybe touched freezing briefly but we really haven’t had the kind of hard freeze that would end the growing season for a lot of locations yet,” Herron said. “So it is getting a little bit late in the season for that and we don’t really see any significant hard freezes on the horizon.”

In addition to the warm temperatures, the Upper Cumberland remains dry. Herron said he’s hopeful some more rain will enter the forecast.

“One thing that we are seeing going into the late fall here is even though we are going to be maintaining the warmer temperatures we are also going to be seeing a little bit more active weather,” Herron said. “So we do have some relief from the drought conditions coming our way.”

Herron said it would more than likely not be enough to reach saturation levels but certainly more relief than we had seen in the summer and early fall. Herron said several areas across Middle Tennessee could see new records for the latest first fall freeze.