Record breaking temperatures to come to a halt. Fall colors may already be irredeemable. – Kingsport Times News

Record breaking temperatures to come to a halt. Fall colors may already be irredeemable.  Kingsport Times News

Abnormally high temperatures in Tennessee caused by a heat dome are expected to drop this week, according to U.S. National Weather Service data. A heat dome occurs when hot air expands, resulting in a warmer atmosphere and higher temperatures. Meteorologist Matt Reagan at the NWS Nashville office said the timeframe of a heat dome depends on the upper air patterns. "We had a big area of high pressure that sat right over Tennessee," he said. "And there were no other upper air features that were present to kind of push that ridge or that dome of high pressure away from the area, so it sat there for multiple days." Heat domes are not uncommon and are often seen during the summer months.

"This one was particularly strong," he said. "We've been dry and that allows the air to heat up faster, as opposed to if you have more moisture… so if you have a dry air mass, dry soils allows temperatures to heat up much quicker than they would in August or July when there's more humidity." A cold front currently over Kentucky into far Western Tennessee, he said, is expected to push through the state over the next couple of days, weakening the heat dome and bringing temperatures down. In the Northeast Region, temperatures are expected to drop into