Humidity and Temps Down

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Generally some high clouds streaking across the sky of Central Alabama this morning with a somewhat unusual weather pattern for early July which I believe most people will enjoy as we get a break from the recent heat. Birmingham reached 93 for a high yesterday but still much cooler than the record for yesterday of 101.

An upper level trough moving through the Ohio River Valley along with the surface combination of Hurricane Arthur off the South Carolina coast and a surface high over Illinois have worked in our favor to bring an unusual summer cold front through the Southeast US. This set of circumstances will set us up for some drier and cooler air for the Fourth of July and the weekend and most likely keep us dry into the middle of next week.

Arthur was upgraded to a hurricane this morning and continued to be reasonably well behaved with a continued clustering of computer guidance on the track as it gradually turns northeastward along the Southeast US coast. Hurricane warnings were posted for much of the North Carolina coast where Arthur will make its closest approach to land.

The upper trough moving through the Ohio River Valley will nudge Arthur into the North Atlantic away from the US coastline over the weekend. Arthur will speed up and head into the Canadian Maritime Provinces by Sunday. Upper ridging building over the western states will keep a slight troughiness across the eastern half of the country. This generally northwesterly flow aloft will keep the heat in check as highs return to the lower 90s and keep moisture levels down into the Tuesday/Wednesday time frame. A short wave trough Tuesday/Wednesday along with the gradual return of moisture will bring showers back into the forecast.

In the Eastern Pacific, we also have a decaying Tropical Storm Douglas which will remain well out to sea.

Beach goers will enjoy some dry weather over the Fourth weekend, too. There remains the possibility of isolated showers today but it should be dry Friday and Saturday with isolated showers back in the beach forecast for Sunday and early next week. Temperatures will slip back a notch with highs in the upper 80s and a good supply of sunshine each day. Water temperature along the Alabama coastal area remains in the middle 80s.

Voodoo country remains somewhat fluid as we know and the dominating feature will be upper level ridging moving from the Western US over the Central US during the middle of July. This could spell a period of some heat for much of the eastern two-thirds of the country for the middle of July, a pattern not unexpected for this time of year.

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With great weather for the Fourth, enjoy the community fireworks displays which should be unimpeded by any rain possibility. I’ll have the next Weather Xtreme Video posted on Friday morning. Godspeed.

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather