Afternoon Sun and Not as Cold

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Low clouds and fog blanketed much of Central Alabama this morning, though as you will see from the Skycam network, there was a good deal of variability to the fog. The fog should dissipate by mid morning around 9 or 10 am, but the clouds should stick around for much of the morning. Clouds will begin to break up this afternoon from west to east and we should see some sun for the afternoon hours. And it will not be as cold today as it was yesterday as the daytime highs should recover into the lower 60s, still a little below the typical highs for this time in March which are around 67 degrees.

The next several days should be rain free and warmer as the upper air pattern becomes less amplified and we go into a nearly zonal flow pattern across the Southeast US. A fast moving short wave trough will cross the Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes from Wednesday into Thursday dragging a weak cold front into the area Wednesday. While we are likely to see a mix of sun and clouds, it does not look like we’ll see enough moisture return to bring any showers with the dissipating front.

A surface high pressure system will settle into and across the Southeast on Thursday and Friday. Rain chances do come up as we head into the weekend as the primary westerlies remain well to our north. However, the upper trough moving through New England is likely to drag a frontal zone into the Southeast on Saturday and Sunday. The frontal zone will be a focus for some showers, but this does not appear to be a big rain event. The problem is that the frontal zone will weaken and washout somewhat but with no upper air push to it, it will stick around until another impulse moves through the Great Lakes on Tuesday bringing another good shot at rain but finally pushing the frontal zone into the Gulf and Atlantic.

Rainfall for the next five days appears light after the reasonably heavy rains of the last couple of days. And there is no reason to expect any severe weather threats for the next five days.

The pattern remains active peeking out into voodoo country with a nice trough moving through the eastern US around the 30th with yet another fairly sharp trough expected around the 3rd of April. This latter trough appears to be strong and could be responsible for some type of severe weather situation. This is voodoo country, but it is also early April which does put us in the heart of severe weather season. We’ll keep an eye on it and see how it evolves with future model runs.

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James Spann is off on some turkey hunting adventure this morning, so I’m filling in for him on this edition of the Weather Xtreme Video. He is expected to be back this afternoon with the next edition of the Weather Xtreme Video unless the turkeys capture him and hold him for ransom! Enjoy the day and Godspeed.

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather