Showers By Wednesday, Then Much Cooler

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THIS AFTERNOON: We have a mix of sun and clouds across Alabama this afternoon, and nothing showing up on radar. Temperatures are generally in the 77 to 81 degree range. Clouds should thicken tonight, but the weather stays dry.

TOMORROW THROUGH FRIDAY: Tomorrow looks like a generally cloudy day, with some chance of filtered sunshine at times. Some of the high moisture over Alabama tomorrow will actually originate from Tropical Storm Octave, near the Baja California peninsula. Low levels will remain dry, and for now we don’t expect any rain during the day tomorrow.

We will forecast occasional showers on Wednesday as a cold front begins to enter Alabama from the northwest. Some rain will remain possible Wednesday night, and the GFS and NAM are now hinting that we might even have a little wet weather into the day Thursday with clouds hanging tough. Rain won’t be too heavy, with amounts well under one-half inch in most places.

Our weather begins to turn much cooler Thursday; looks like we hover in the low to mid 60s all day with clouds and a little light rain at times. The sky will clear Thursday night, and we are projecting a low between 40 and 45 degrees by daybreak Friday, easily the coolest air we have seen so far this season. The sky Friday should be generally sunny, but the high will be only around 70 degrees.

THE ALABAMA WEEKEND: Still considerable model differences on Saturday; the ECMWF wants to bring a short wave into the state with rain possible, but the GFS is completely dry. The GFS has performed better in the day 3-7 time frame this season, so we will buy the more optimistic GFS solution for now and not mention any rain on Saturday; the day should be partly to mostly sunny with a high in the low 70s. Both models shows dry weather for Alabama Sunday with a high between 71 and 75 along with a good supply of sunshine. Early morning lows will remain mostly in the upper 40s over the weekend.

RACING AT TALLADEGA: Looks like a little scattered light rain is possible at the Talladega Superspeedway Thursday with a cloudy sky, but the weather looks fine Friday through Sunday, with mostly sunny pleasant days and clear chilly nights. The high Friday will be around 70, with low 70s Saturday, and mid 70s possible Sunday. Early morning lows will be down in the 40s. As discussed above, the only potential forecast change would be on Saturday, but for now we will leave any rain out of the forecast.

NEXT WEEK: Looks like another chance of rain around Tuesday of next week, followed by another shot of colder air; see the Weather Xtreme video for the maps, graphics, and details.

TROPICS: The Atlantic basin remains pretty quiet, but over in the East Pacific we have tropical storms Octave and Priscilla; Octave will dissipate near the coast of Baja California in coming days, but the high level moisture is streaming from the system up into parts of Texas and Oklahoma this afternoon. Priscilla will move northwest and dissipate over the open Pacific.

And, in the West Pacific, Typhoon Wipha will brush the coast of Japan in about 24 hours as a category one storm, while Typhoon Nari is moving into Vietnam as a weakening system. See all of the maps and graphics on the Weather Xtreme video.

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I had a great time today visiting the 2nd graders at Edgewood Elementary in Homewood… be sure and watch for them on the Pepsi KIDCAM today at 5:00 on ABC 33/40 News! The next Weather Xtreme video will be posted here by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow…

Tags: dry

Category: Alabama's Weather