Wintry weather rolls into Chattanooga area

Friday, October 21, 2011

photo Betty McNault, a health and human performance teacher at UTC, braves the chilly weather while walking from her class on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's campus Thursday morning.

WEEKEND WEATHER FORECASTTodaySunnyHi 63°Lo 36 °FSaturdaySunnyHi 66 °FLo 38 °FSundayPartlyCloudyHi 69 °FLo 47 °FMondaySunnyHi 72 °FLo 48 °FSource: National Weather Service

CURRENT WEATHER

Get the latest forecast at the Times Free Press weather center.

Walking past the Hunter Museum of American Art on Thursday, Matt Grizzle and Tabitha Allen, bundled in coats, were headed for a cup of hot coffee.

"It's my favorite season," Allen said about the chill in the air Thursday. "I like the changing of the colors and the weather."

"Sitting around with friends by a fire," added Grizzle. Allen said the couple are planning a Halloween bonfire for friends.

They'll get plenty of chances to seek warmth in the next few days as temperatures plunge more than 20 degrees from near-record highs earlier this week.

On Monday, Chattanooga hit 85 degrees, one degree away from tying the heat record for that day, WRCB-Channel 3 meteorologist Nick Austin said.

The weather hit 81 degrees Tuesday before warm air from the Gulf of Mexico collided with cold Midwestern air that evening, Austin said. That triggered overnight storms and a slide in temperatures, from 61 degrees overnight to 47 by the end of Wednesday.

The chill's going to stay around for the weekend, Austin said. High temperatures aren't expected to get out of the 60s and night-time lows will dip into the 30s.

While daytime temperatures will climb into the 70s at the beginning of next week, they drop into the 60s around Thursday, Austin said. Lows will be in the 40s and low 50s.

On the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's campus, the oak trees are still green, but as students walked outside of the University Center on Thursday, a single brown leaf fell onto the sidewalk in front of a bench. A few minutes later, the wind carried it away.

Massage therapy student Angie Rogers, who just spent a week in Cancun, Mexico, to celebrate a wedding, left Chattanooga when it was warm and came back to the cold.

She and Kang Vuong, an 18-year-old biology student from Atlanta, were hurrying to get out of the cold and go rock climbing in the on-campus gym Thursday. Vuong's hands were in the pockets of his gray sweatpants while he and Rogers talked about the weather.

"I'd rather have warmer weather than pumpkin pie," Rogers said.

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