Category: weather 101

Digging deep into our first potential winter weather event of the season

November 30, 2025

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Erik Proseus

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weather 101, winter weather

With the first potential winter weather event of the season at hand, we dig into what is expected locally, as well as a precip type tutorial.
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Wake lows… and how low will they (temps) go?

November 25, 2025

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Erik Proseus

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holiday, Thanksgiving, wake low, weather 101

A fairly unusual weather event happened last night in the metro. And we look ahead to the Holiday weekend forecast.
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Why has the rain been moving backwards?

July 9, 2018

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Erik Proseus

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storm motion, weather 101

I’ve been asked several times over the past week why our showers and thunderstorms have been moving “the wrong way.” Isn’t it more typical in the summer for us to be watching skies to the south or southwest than to the east? While sometimes we just call them “Crazy Ivans” (you remember this scene from “The…
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Updated look at the holiday weekend & “Dr. Dewpoint” strikes again!

June 29, 2016

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Erik Proseus

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dewpoint, event recap, forecast discussion, weather 101

It’s been an interesting start to the week in Mid-South weather. We started off on Monday with an outflow boundary, or gust front, and thunderstorms (as predicted) that turned out to bring some short-lived flooding and sporadic wind damage and hail (that we didn’t predict). Fortunately, the damage was all fairly low end, the water…
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How a mulch fire and atmospheric inversion create a smoky morning commute

October 14, 2015

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Erik Proseus

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air quality, smoke, weather 101

As we drove into town last evening from a few (well-deserved I might say) days at the beach with family, a huge plume of smoke emanated from the area around I-40 and Sycamore View near Bartlett. I didn’t know what was on fire at the time, nor did I realize (since I had been away…
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Weather Mythbusters: Disproving urban myths related to today’s “disappearing” snow

February 23, 2015

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Erik Proseus

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education, radar, virga, weather 101

Many of you were diligently watching radar this afternoon as snow moved towards the area from the west. You were excited by it’s approach. You were disappointed by it “disappearing” from the radar loop as it got into Crittenden County, to our west. Of course, this visual didn’t help to dispel the urban myths of…
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Microbursts produce wind damage in Shelby County on Monday night

July 15, 2014

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Erik Proseus

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event recap, microburst, weather 101

Severe thunderstorms rolled through the Memphis metro on Monday late afternoon and evening ahead of a strong cold front of Canadian origin. A pre-frontal trough plowed into a very unstable airmass featuring temperatures in the mid 90s, high dewpoints, and high total atmospheric moisture that contributed to torrential rain in some storms, even though it…
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This rain won’t clean your car off!

April 29, 2014

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Erik Proseus

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dust storm, jet stream, weather 101

We’ve received several reports from social media this morning of sprinkles on cars and other outdoor objects that leave behind a residue, or dust, after evaporating. In fact, I had noticed the same thing on my windshield yesterday and assumed pollen, but didn’t look closely. The pictures received though we definitely NOT pollen. It was…
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Watch for falling virga!

November 14, 2012

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Erik Proseus

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sounding, virga, weather 101

Some interesting cloud formations floated over the Memphis metro this morning as an upper-level disturbance moved through the area. Below is a great picture taken by Angela High along the north loop of I-40. Virga descending from clouds over north Memphis on Wednesday morning. Photo credit: Angela High. With the disturbance passing by, these clouds…
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Fog envelopes downtown Memphis on a frosty morning

November 8, 2012

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Erik Proseus

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fog, weather 101, weather pics

Downtown Memphis was treated to a somewhat rare sight early this morning, especially if one had a vantage point from above. A thick cloud of fog formed over the Mississippi River and drifted over downtown streets! Photos taken by Jonathan May (Twitter: @jmay11) from the 29th floor balcony of One Commerce Square downtown (shown below)…
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