NASHVILLE (AP) - There has never been a drier month in Chattanooga. Not in any year since records started in 1928 or on any page of the calendar.

For the month of August, the city received just a meager 0.01 inch of rain. Some people likely perspired more than that.

The scenario of hot, dry weather played out statewide, but nowhere was the lack of August rainfall as pronounced as in Chattanooga.

National Weather Service forecaster Sam Roberts in Morristown said he watched the same weather pattern play out repeatedly. A cold front would push in from the northwest, hit dry air in place over Tennessee and start dropping rain - some in the Tri-Cities, less in Knoxville, precious little in Chattanooga.

"It's been so dry and warm that when the front gets there, the moisture's gone" Robert said.

At the NWS office in Nashville, meteorologist Bobby Boyd compiled figures that show the capital city got about half the usual August rainfall: 1.78 inches compared with its usual 3.17 inches.

Boyd also found in perusing 141 years of temperature records that August was the 25th-hottest in Nashville, averaging 1.8 degrees above average.

Memphis, too, had its issue with summer weather, but that was measured on the thermometer, not the rain gauge.

The city had its third-hottest summer, with an average temperature of 84.6 degrees. NWS forecaster Jim Branda said it was déjà vu.

"(Temperatures were) well above normal, very hot and the thing is our second-hottest summer was last year," Branda said.

The hottest summer on record for Memphis occurred in 1980 when the average temperature was a full degree higher than this year at 86.6 degrees.

The hottest day of this year to date in Memphis and likely for the whole year was 106 degrees, reached on Aug. 3.

The city ended August 0.2 inches above normal monthly precipitation.

Across most of Tennessee, lawns turned brown, some crops withered and farm ponds dried up. It makes a body look forward to fall.

Roberts' outlook is welcome to hear.

"Next week looks pretty nice," he said. "Cooler weather will move in."

Labor Day high temperature expectations were 85 degrees in Memphis, 82 degrees in Nashville, 78 degrees in the Tri-Cities, 81 degrees in Knoxville and 84 degrees in Chattanooga.

The cold front ushering in the cooler weather has some moisture, but not a lot. Rain chances for Sunday never exceed 40 percent statewide.

Roberts said September can be a fooler, with moderate weather that can turn hot for a few days, but he said the season is turning.

NWS looks at weather in meteorological seasons, meaning summer is June-August. Astrological summer lasts until Sept. 23 at 5:05 a.m. EDT - the moment of the autumnal equinox and one of two days during the year when there are equal periods of daylight and darkness.

Whichever one's reference, the result is about to be the same.

"Fall's just around the corner," Roberts said. "Summer's just about over."