The Tennessee Valley will see a couple of cool nights in the coming week and maybe a little rain before temperatures rise again next week, an official said.

Geoff Heidelberger, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Huntsville, said

“The best chance for rain is Tuesday, with about a 60–70% chance and the possibility of about a quarter-inch, and then again Saturday into Sunday,” Heidelberger said Monday.

Moving into Wednesday, it will be cool, with highs in the middle 60s. The weather will dry out Wednesday through the end of the work week, he said. Thursday’s high will be in the middle to upper 60s, and Friday’s high will be in the lower 70s, he said.

But Wednesday night into Thursday and Thursday night into Friday will bring lows in the 40s to the Athens area. The short burst of overnight cold may be a good reminder to get your natural gas and other heaters checked by a professional and to tighten up windows and foundations before the inevitable freeze.

“A daytime warming trend will continue into Saturday and Sunday, with highs in the upper 70s, but there is a slight chance of rain Saturday evening into Sunday,” Heidelberger said. “Next week is expected to remain warm, with highs in the 80s.”

Outdoor chores

With mostly warm weather on the horizon, gardeners don’t have to hurry and plant fall shrubs unless they want to. There is plenty of milder weather coming. For those who do plant shrubs, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System advises watering when needed, as it is already dry this year.

For those who need something to do in the garden this month, ACES recommends planting turnip, mustard, kale, rape, spinach and onion sets, or bulbs like tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, crocuses, Dutch irises, anemones and ranunculuses.

Also this month, ACES advises loosening packed mulch, renewing mulch around shrubs and rosebeds and adding mulch around existing shrubs that don’t have any. Other tasks on the list should be spraying oils to kill scale, mites and other pests before the freeze and cleaning up dead stems and trash from flowerbed after the first killing frost.