A Drier and Cooler Fourth of July

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It’s fabulous weather for the Fourth of July and the weekend with some lowered humidity and cooler air for us to enjoy. Fireworks displays tonight should have no problem from the weather, something we usually have to deal with.

The overall synoptic weather pattern featured a sprawling high pressure system at the surface centered over Chicago with the tight circulation of Hurricane Arthur beginning to move away from the Mid-Atlantic Coast of the US. Aloft a fairly strong trough for early July was moving across the eastern Great Lakes with ridging along the Rockies. The combination of features allowed for a drier and somewhat cooler air mass to settle into Central Alabama with temperatures below our seasonal values for early July. And those humidities are great with dew points falling into the upper 50s.

So July 4th will be fantastic and the weekend will follow that example with a gradual warm up. With a slight troughiness over the eastern half of the country with the ridge anchored along the eastern slopes of the Rockies, we won’t be seeing any major changes in the weather for Central Alabama. Temperatures will gradually return to season values with lows in the lower 90s by Sunday and into next week. Morning lows will be in the 60s through Tuesday and into the lower 70s for the rest of week. Moisture values increase slowly during the first of the week, so I expect us to stay dry until Wednesday when we re-introduce the possibility of daily showers. Those daily chances will stay in the forecast through the end of next week.

Beach goers will enjoy a great Fourth weekend, too, with warm weather, lots of sunshine, and no chance of showers until Monday. Highs will be in the upper 80s and morning lows in the lower 70s for the next several days with the Gulf water temperature running in the middle 80s.

The GFS continues to keep us guessing about the long range. The latest run continues with the idea of strong ridging over the Central US but toys with keeping a slight trough along the eastern coast of the US that should keep extreme heat at bay.

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Thanks for staying tuned to the Blog as your weather source. The next Weather Xtreme Video will come Saturday morning. Godspeed.

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather