El Paso, Texas to Dalton, Georgia
Sorry for the late post, I fully blame the Fall Premiere season of TV. And Real Job Inc. And butterflies (nobody EVER suspects the butterfly). But here are are, embarking off a trip through the southern US. Through the entire state of Texas to the Southern Appalachians, we'll cover 1,448 miles over 3 days. Time to head off!
DAY ONE
We head out eastward from El Paso, and even though we'll travel 575 miles today, we'll still be in the same state when we finish! Everything's bigger in Texas, even the state itself, right? A system pushing (very slowly) out of the Four Corners region continues to bring rain to NM and west TX, so some scattered showers and perhaps an early morning thunderstorm is possible as we make our way on I-10 from El Paso to I-20. High pressure sitting over the Upper Midwest has been keeping the kibosh on most of the precip that's been rolling out of the mountains and into the Plains. Some clusters of precip have been surviving, but for the most part have been staying north of our route. By midday, as we make our way past Midland, we should outrun most of the precip, but it'll remain cloudy over the region. A dry trip continues as we make our way into the aptly named Weatherford for the night.
DAY TWO
Some low clouds are expected to form in southeasterly flow during the overnight, blotting out the morning sun as we start our trek towards the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area (probaly not the best place to go through rush hour, but hey, everybody's getting along right?). A few scattered showers will linger into midday, but most likely will be found farther north towards the Red River and places northward. Sunlight will be more prevalent as we continue into northern Louisiana by early afternoon and moreso as we pull into Jackson, MS, our end of our 464-mile 2nd day.
DAY THREE
Remember that high pressure I mentioned earlier? By today it's shifted over the Northeast and Ohio Valley, but its influence extends down into the Tennessee Valley. What luck! That's exactly where we're traveling through today! Some patchy morning fog is expected as we head on our way, but will burn off quickly by mid-morning as the sun climbs into the sky. While our trip today is "only" 414 miles, it might be some slow going as we move through the cities of Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, both of which were heavily damaged during the outbreak back in late April. Would be interesting to see how much they've come back from that awful day. Otherwise, it should be smooth sailing towards Chattanooga and into Dalton.
