Clay Smith's Thursday morning weather

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Now for if we're going to get more rain in the Tennessee Valley today, let's check in with meteorologist Clay Smith.

[00:00:05]Hey, Clay.

[00:00:06]>> Hey, Michelle. Well, we had the rain moving through in parts of the area yesterday and this led to a beautiful scene in the Cleveland area. Tamra Amos sent this one. You can see that full rainbow right there with the dark clouds in the background. This was just after a nice little rain shower rolled through.

[00:00:24]So, again, it's that time of the year where we get these scattered showers, peaks of sunshine, which could lead to some really nice rainbow shots and we've seen that pretty much all week long here across the Tennessee Valley. Now, we do have a front that's going to be dropping to the south. This will spark spotty showers and storms this afternoon, but wherever this front kind of sets up this afternoon, that's where a lot of the activity's going to be concentrated and that'll likely be a little bit further to our south. Now, this morning, nice and dry, but we do have a little bit of fog out there back towards the Blue Ridge Mountains, Polk, Cherokee, Fannin, Gilmer, and parts of Murray counties, and along the Cumberland Plateau down into the northeast Alabama mountains in Jackson County. So, if you're traveling in any of those areas, just be mindful visibility may drop below a mile at times. Temperatures generally mild and muggy, about where we should be this time of the year, upper 60s to low 70s.

[00:01:15]Going to be pretty hot out there, especially with the sunshine peaking through, and it's not the heat, it's the humidity. That heat index likely to be in the low 90s as temperatures climb into the mid-80s. And any of those storms that pop up later on today could produce locally heavy rain. Now, that's going to be the exception, not the rule, but we're still going to have that potential. Still a lot of moisture out there, so we'll keep a close eye on things, but as we take a look at your Future Tracker, there's not a whole lot going on as we move into the afternoon.

[00:01:45]Couple spotty showers here and there that'll continue through the afternoon and one or two of these may be a a little bit stronger with some gusty winds and maybe a few rumbles of thunder. As we get into the overnight hours, things are going to be relatively quiet. Now, going into Friday, that front kind of lifts back to the north.

[00:02:01]That's going to give us a better chance of seeing some scattered shower and storm activity, especially late in the day on Friday. You can see some of those storms coming back in from the south.

[00:02:10]Could be some locally heavy rain once again. That'll likely continue overnight Friday into Saturday morning. So, the best chance of rain on Saturday likely to be early in the day. And then once again, the front's kind of going to go back to our south. So, it's just wavering back And that's going to continue to be the driver in some of our shower and storm chances through this weekend. The rainfall through Saturday evening highly variable. Again, you may get under one of those heavier downpours, get a quick inch of rain. I don't think everyone's going to see that much. I think on average a quarter to a half of an inch is a pretty good bet. But this just shows that there's going to be some pockets of heavier rain over the next couple of days. And so far this month, we've gotten nearly 6 inches of rain, which is pretty close to our March and April combined totals. And with this rainfall deficits that we've been chipping into, I am expecting some improvements with our drought monitor that will be released later this morning. So, as of last week, we were still in an extreme drought. But we have had quite a bit of rain, so I'm expecting again some of those improvements to start showing up on our drought monitor. And of course, our grass is starting to grow. So, you're going to be mowing this weekend. Still going to be dodging some of those showers, though, especially Friday into Saturday. Could be a few lingering afternoon pop-ups during Sunday. But notice temperatures going down a little bit, 79. Overnight lows in the low 60s, so a little bit cooler at night. And a couple of mornings next week, we may even dip down into the 50s. Plus, we're going to have some lower humidity out there. Going to feel really nice as we move into the first week of June.

[00:03:45]>> Yeah. Wow.

[00:03:46]>> Almost halfway through with this year already.

[00:03:48]>> Year is flying by. But man, know, I I out this morning and you could just cut that humidity with a knife.

[00:03:53]>> It's been so soupy lately, so it's going to be nice to see a little bit of a break because you know we don't get many of those during the summer.

[00:03:59]>> Yeah. All right, thanks Clay.