Barometric Pressure Forecast for Spurgeon, Tennessee
Barometric pressure forecast for Spurgeon, Tennessee — in the Great Valley of East Tennessee near Johnson City. See current barometric pressure and what it means for weather-sensitive people.
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Pressure and weather in Spurgeon
Spurgeon lies in the Tri-Cities area of upper East Tennessee, on the floor of the Great Valley that runs southwest to northeast between the Unaka and Blue Ridge mountains on one side and the Cumberland Plateau on the other. Both walls do real work. The Blue Ridge strips moisture from systems arriving off the southeast, so this valley is noticeably drier than the North Carolina slopes a short drive away, and the Cumberland Plateau does something similar to weather crossing from the west. The valley's real speciality, though, is cold air damming. When high pressure settles over New England and cold dense air spills southwest along the eastern flank of the Appalachians, it wedges into this valley and refuses to leave, holding temperatures near freezing under low grey overcast for two or three days while milder air rides over the top. The result is prolonged freezing rain, a flat and stubbornly high barometer, and a pattern that forecast models have historically handled badly. Summer is warm and humid with mountain-triggered afternoon convection and little synoptic movement.
What this means for you
Damming episodes hold the pattern in place for days instead of moving it through, so the burden is duration rather than rate of change. A barometric pressure forecast showing a flat, high reading can still describe a hard stretch in this valley.