Warm Weekend Weather

We are well up into the 70s again today and some 80s down south, as this spring-like air mass highlights our December Saturday. Another day with a mix of sun and clouds and the record high for Birmingham today is 78 set back in 1971. Our average high for today is 56F so we are some 15-20 degrees above where we should be. Of course we will have to wait until late this evening to see if we tied or set any new records. Tonight, expect a mild night for December with lows mainly in the mid-50s and a partly cloudy sky.

With a strong area of high pressure to the east of us, and the approaching system from the west, we are going to see the pressure gradient between these two increase our winds across the state tomorrow. Winds will likely be sustained between 10-20 mph with gusts over 30mph at times. It still looks as though most of tomorrow will be dry and very warm with highs in the mid to upper 70s and yes, likely flirting with those records again. For tomorrow, the record for Birmingham is 79 set back in 1931, which seems as though it will be safe, but you never know.

The latest day two convective outlook from the SPC for Sunday night has all but done away with the severe weather threat for Alabama.

There will still be showers and storms roll across the state ahead of a cold front, but the lack of instability, means really nothing more than gusty winds and heavy rainfall. The air aloft for this kind of system is also relatively warm, which means poor lapse rates, another ingredient needed for severe weather. It will be very hard to get thunderstorms going in this setup. So the bottom line is that a band of showers will move through the state Sunday night, with gusty winds, but probably no thunder. Best chance of rain will come from 10:00 p.m. Sunday through 4:00 a.m. Monday and rain amounts of 1/2 inch are likely and some spots could see a little more.

These showers will be moving through with strong wind fields and a highly sheared environment, so we will still watch things closely. When it comes to thunderstorms, expect the unexpected, you know, but overall the severe weather threat for Alabama is very low, but not zero.

Tags: ANC

Category: Alabama's Weather