Tropical Storm Arthur and Heavy Rainfall in the South; Severe Weather in the Midwest

An outbreak of severe thunderstorms is expected across portions of Illinois and Indiana tonight. Intense tornadoes, swaths of damaging gusts, and hail in excess of 2 inches in diameter possible. Tropical Storm Arthur will continue to produce strong winds across coastal Upper Texas and Louisiana tonight, as well as potentially life-threatening flooding across southern Louisiana into Mississippi. Read More >

On Monday, August 21st, 2017, all of of North America experienced a solar eclipse of the sun. The path of the total solar eclipse was from the Plateau to much of southeast Tennessee to southwest North Carolina. The maximum solar eclipse occurred between 233 and 236 pm ET. Due to the moon’s blockage of the suns solar radiation, temperatures (red line) dropped as much as 10 degrees between 2 and 3 pm Monday afternoon. However, the temperature drop varied greatly across east Tennessee, southwest Virginia, and southwest North Carolina. The dewpoint temperature (green line), which is measure of moisture in the air, generally increased during the eclipse. The graphs below show the different temperature and dewpoint observation traces across southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, and southwest North Carolina.