Scott Martin is a meteorologist, graphic artist, musician, husband, and a father. Scott is a member of the National Weather Association and the Central Alabama Chapter of the National Weather Association. Scott is also the co-founder of Racecast Weather, which provides accurate forecasts for many racing series across the USA.
We are starting off the morning with a good bit of clear skies across the state, with only a few clouds over the western locations… and radar shows a clean slate at the moment, but I have a feeling we’ll see some scattered activity later this afternoon.
We have a fair bit of scattered shower activity over the eastern half of the area while nearly all of the western half of Central Alabama is dry at this point.
The Heat Miser and Mother Nature continue to keep us in an extremely hot weather pattern today, and as you can see by the image above, temperatures are already well up into the 90s across Central Alabama, and for much of the rest of the state as well.
Boy, it’s a hot and steamy one outside already, and it’s only 11:30! Temperatures are currently in the upper 80s to the lower 90s and we still haven’t hit the peak of daytime heating.
Skies across Central Alabama as we have hit the lunch-time hour on the final Monday of summer are mostly clear allowing plenty of sunshine to reach the surface and offering very little in relief from the heat.
As of 2:00 pm ET: While Florence has weakened to a weak category one hurricane, life-threatening storm surges and hurricane-force wind gusts continue to batter the Carolina coastline, along with torrential tropical downpours that could soon lead to catastrophic freshwater flooding over portions of the Carolinas.
Radar is free of any rainfall at this point across Central Alabama as there is a good bit of sunshine reaching the surface. Temperatures are currently in the mid-80s to the lower 90s, with Tuscaloosa and Anniston being tied as the hot spot at 91 degrees. Birmingham was sitting at 90 degrees.
The eye of Hurricane Florence is still wobbling slowly southwestward near the coast of southeastern North Carolina. Here is the latest as of 9:00 am CT.
Conditions continue to deteriorate along the Carolina coast as Hurricane Florence continues to slowly crawl towards the shoreline. Amzing total so far… over 12 inches of rain has fallen in Atlantic Beach of Carteret County, NC. As of a few hours ago, over 79,000 are already without power in North Carolina.
As of the 5:00 PM CT Update: Conditions along the Carolina coast continue to deteriorate as the center of Category 2 Hurricane Florence crawls ever-so-slowly to the west-northwest at 5 MPH. Maximum sustained winds are at 105 MPH and the minimum central pressure is at 955 MB (28.20 inches).
Winds and rough surf are continuing to increase along the outer banks and the coastal parts of southeastern North Carolina, along with the threat of tornadoes on the northern side of the storm.
Skies are mostly clear across Central Alabama at Midday with only a few isolated showers showing up over the western half of the area. Shower activity is more pronounced over the north and northwestern parts of the state, with a few showers showing up over the extreme western parts of Marion County.
While Florence continues to have all of our attention, we do have more tropical disturbances out there that we need to keep our eyes on.
Skies across Central Alabama are currently partly cloudy as we make the run up to 1:30 PM, but radar shows a good bit of scattered showers and a few embedded thunderstorms mainly over the eastern and southwestern parts of the area.
The models are in relatively close agreement with positioning, timing, and rainfall amounts… but with each model, there are some differences. These are also very similar with the National Hurricane Center forecast track.
Much of Central Alabama is enjoying mostly cloudy skies at this point, but we do have some thicker cloud cover over parts of the area.
As of 10:00 am, Tropical Storm Isaac continues on a westerly track at 16 MPH with maximum sustained winds at 70 MPH. The minimum central pressure is up to 996 MB (29.42 inches).
As of the latest update from the National Hurricane Center as of 10:00 am this morning, Florence is still a category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 MPH and a minimum central pressure of 950 MB (28.06 inches).
