MID-WEEK: A deep upper trough will dig down into the Central U.S. over the next few days, pushing a cold front in our direction. This will keep our weather wet through tomorrow and Wednesday with periods of rain and a few thunderstorms. Additional rain amounts of 2-3″ are likely over the northern half of the state. Like yesterday, a few strong storms are possible, but organized severe weather is not expected.
RADAR CHECK: As expected, we have a number of showers and thunderstorms in progress across Alabama this afternoon; they are moving slowly northward. Some are producing heavy rain and lightning, but they are all well below severe limits. We will maintain the chance of showers tonight in the moist, unstable air over Alabama.
As we have hit the 11:00 am hour in Central Alabama on this first Monday of fall, we have showers and a few embedded thunderstorms forming mainly over the southwestern parts of the area (Greene, Hale, and Sumter counties), with a few more scattered showers over the western parts of Walker and southern parts of Winston county.
WET PATTERN DEVELOPING: Birmingham has received less than one inch (0.89″) of rain during the entire month of September, so conditions are getting pretty dry around here. In fact, the last day with over 1/2″ of rain was back on August 1. The good news is that a wet pattern is setting up across Alabama and the Deep South this week as the upper ridge weakens, move eastward, and a surface front approaches.
Showers are beginning to form this afternoon across parts of Central and North Alabama. Rain chances will be going up starting tomorrow.
Another hot and dry day is expected across much of Central Alabama today. The exception will be northwestern sections of the state where clouds and showers will keep temperatures in the lower 80s.
THE FINAL DAY OF SUMMER: And it is sure feeling like it…We are once again basking under a sky with more sun than clouds, hot temperatures, with randomly scattered afternoon showers and storms. Temperatures are ranging from the upper 80s to lower 90s across Central Alabama this afternoon. As we look at the radar there […]
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.
Vulcan Park and Museum presents its 14th annual Vulcan AfterTunes fall concert series. Hundreds of people are expected to attend the three-part event, which takes place on Sept. 23, Oct. 7 and Oct. 21.
RADAR CHECK: Most of the showers and storms across the northern half of Alabama are east of I-65 this afternoon… they are showing little movement, and will fade away once the sun goes down later this evening. Otherwise, we have a mix of sun and clouds with temperatures not as hot as recent days… generally between 85 and 90 degrees. The average high at Birmingham for September 21 is 84 degrees.
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.
James Spann’s video forecast for all the SEC games this weekend plus UAB, Samford and Jax State.
The upper high responsible for the late season heat wave will weaken a bit and drift to the east over the next few days; we project highs today and over the weekend in the 87-91 degree range with a mix of sun and clouds. And, with the air becoming a little more unstable the door is open for a few widely scattered showers and storms each day through Sunday.
Like many children growing up, Conrad Reed liked to tinker with model cars and airplanes. But while most have given up the childhood hobby, at age 68, Reed has yet to quit. He just works on the real things now.
ANOTHER SIZZLING HOT DAY: Temperatures are up in the mid 90s again today; some parts of West Alabama are in the upper 90s at mid-afternoon, a good 10-12 degrees above average for mid-September. The sky is mostly sunny, and showers remain very hard to find on radar.
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.
TOMORROW AND THE WEEKEND: The upper high weakens a bit, the air aloft becomes a little colder, and moisture levels rise. We will bring in the potential for random, scattered showers and thunderstorms, mostly from 1:00 until 11:00 p.m. on these three days. Odds of any one place seeing a shower each day is 30 to 40 percent, and highs will be in 87 to 90 degree range.
HOT: Birmingham’s high as of 3:15 this afternoon was 96 degrees… making this the second hottest day so far this summer. We reached 97 on September 15, the hottest summer day on the books for this year. The sky is sunny, and bone crushing subsidence (sinking air) under an upper high has put a lid on showers over the northern half of the state. Even down in South Alabama we are seeing only isolated thunderstorms.
