Wet Summer Season To Transition To Drier Fall

The transition to fall began Wednesday afternoon after a wet summer season in the Upper Cumberland.

But how wet? Local weather observer Michael Detwiler said many parts of Middle Tennessee received less rain than normal.

“Over in that part of the state in Dixon and Waverly, they’ve had 31 plus inches of rain during the summer,” Detwiler said. “Whereas here in Cookeville, we’ve had stations that have measured anywhere from 10 inches to 13 inches.”

Detwiler said that from June 1st to August 30th, Cookeville experiences 13.8 inches of rain on average. He said that this past summer Cookeville only experienced some 12.5 inches.

Detwiler said that this lower than the average number for the Cookeville area stems from rain not falling equally.

“So let’s say that you live on the west side of town,” Detwiler said. “Well according to our data the west side of Cookeville got more than the average for the summer whereas, in the eastern part of Cookeville, we received less than average. So again when it rains, it does not fall equally across an area.”

Detwiler said that as summer ends, the community should expect some drier weather despite this past week’s weather averaging a month’s worth of rain. He said that in September Cookeville will typically see some 3.9 inches of rain, which drops to 3.2 inches in October, the driest month of the year on average.

“The next six days interestingly enough will be dry,” Detwiler said. “Because we’ve had a cold front pass through. And so as we look, say, Wednesday afternoon to at least the weekend we’re going to be dry so we’ll sit at the number that we’re at right now.”