Clouds but Cooler

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The weak cold front that has been plaguing the Southeast US for the last couple of days continued to sag slowly southward and was situated across southern Alabama this morning. This has allowed slightly cooler and drier air to move into the northern half of Alabama, so I expect to see mostly cloudy skies today with scattered showers possible mainly across South Alabama. The front continued to have little to push it further southward due to an elongated ridge in the upper atmosphere.

If you are headed to Tuscaloosa where Alabama will host Southern Miss this evening with a 5:00 pm kickoff, it looks like the sky will be occasionally cloudy, but the weather should be dry with a kickoff temperature near 80 degrees, falling through the 70s during the second half. UAB hosts Alabama A&M at Legion Field in Birmingham at 2:30 pm; the sky will be generally cloudy with only a small risk for a shower. The temperature will be around 80 degrees at kickoff, falling into the middle 70s by the final whistle.

The forecast for the beaches: about 4 to 6 hours of sunshine along the coast from Panama City to Gulf Shores through Sunday with scattered thunderstorms; highs will be in the upper 80s. Sea water temperatures are also in the mid 80s.

Tropics are active as expected during the the heart of tropical storm season. Edouard is forecast to become a hurricane on Monday but it is expected to remain well out in the Atlantic. Two areas of disturbed weather were noted in the Gulf of Mexico. The one near the Mexican coast is not expected to develop much as it moves westward into Mexico. The other one just off the Southwest coast of Florida is forecast to track westward and the upper level wind pattern does not appear to be very favorable for any development in the near term. Because this is in the Gulf of Mexico, it will bear watching and a Hurricane Hunter aircraft may investigate the area today.

The ridge remains in place Sunday so isolated showers remain a possibility though we note that precipitable water values continue to drop slightly. The main moisture remains across South Alabama where the better chances for showers should be. While the westerlies remain well to our north, the GFS continued to show general troughiness over the eastern US for the middle and latter portion of the week. This is likely to keep us dry for the latter part of the week. I did note that the ECMWF was considerably drier with its solution than was the GFS.

Looking out into voodoo, the GFS continues to keep the primary trough across the eastern third of the US, but the trough is forecast to weaken as upper ridging again develops over the Southeast US around the end of September. This could mean some warmer weather for us at the end of the month.

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I expect to have the next edition of the Weather Xtreme Video first thing on Sunday morning. Enjoy the cooler weather and Godspeed.

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather