A warmer start to the new week

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Tonight will be clear and cold with lows in the mid to upper 30s. Winds will be northeast around 5 mph through late evening, then becoming calm after midnight. Because temperatures will be only a few degrees above the freezing mark, areas of frost will develop toward daybreak. Yet another chilly night in east Tennessee will require protection for those temperature sensitive plants.

SUNDAY: skies will be mostly sunny throughout the day. The sunshine and a wind shift to the southwest during the afternoon will boost highs into the middle and upper 70s.

MONDAY: a light southwest wind will continue Sunday night into early Monday morning, limiting the amount of overnight cooling that would normally occur. Lows will drop only to the upper 40s and lower 50s by daybreak on Monday. Another mostly sunny day and a strengthening southwesterly wind around 10-20 mph, with gusts to around 25 mph, will send afternoon highs into the upper 70s to around 80 degrees.

TUESDAY: the atmospheric models continue to show a moisture starved, cold front building across east Tennessee late Monday night into Tuesday morning. Any significant low level moisture return will be pushed well to the west across eastern Texas and the lower Mississippi Valley, rather than directly north or northeast during the day Monday, when the front will be making its way south across the Ohio Valley. The fast movement of the cold front and the blocking surface high over the Gulf, should keep the early week system relatively uneventful, in terms of precipitation amounts.

We are hopeful for a quick departure of the expected early morning arrival of the narrow line of showers and isolated thunderstorms in Knoxville, because minor league baseball returns to the city for the first time in almost a quarter of a century, on Tuesday! At this time, it appears that skies will be clearing around the middle part of the day into the afternoon, in store for a dry opening night of baseball. After enjoying a warm Monday in east Tennessee, Tuesday afternoon will be breezy and cooler, with high temperatures limited to the lower 60s even with the benefit of mostly sunny skies. If you are going to the game, be sure to bring that heavy sweater or jacket, because the 7:30 pm, first pitch temperature looks like it will be in the upper 50s, with a light north wind. Temperatures will likely be in the lower 50s by the end of the game, which should occur around 10-11 pm, if no extra innings are required.

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Tod Hyslop - First Alert Meteorologist