Storms Return Thursday

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes…

STORM ALERT 2007: Don’t forget, your last chance to see this year’s edition of our annual severe weather awareness show is tomorrow night (we are doing it on Tuesday this week, not Thursday!) at the Bessemer Civic Center. The show begins at 7:00, and the doors open at 5:00. We will have free t-shirts for the first 500 people there, and we will also be giving away 20 NOAA Weather Radio receivers. We will have some great Alabama weather stories; one of them this year is a look back at the F5 tornado that moved through North Birmingham on April 4, 1977 (that one killed 20 people). We hope to see you there; the Bessemer Civic Center is just off I-59/20 at the Academy Drive exit.

SHORT TERM: No weather problems for Alabama through Wednesday; we expect mostly sunny days and clear nights. Highs in the mid 60s today and tomorrow, but we should rise into the low 70s on Wednesday as a good southerly flow kicks in.

STORMY THURSDAY: Yet another dynamic storm system will move into the nation’s heartland on Thursday; the GFS shows a strong surface low between Des Moines and Chicago at midday Thursday, with a negative tilt, upper trough supporting the system. SPC has defined a severe weather threat for the northern half of Mississippi and Alabama on Thursday, and northward through much of Tennessee and Kentucky.

As compared to the storm system this past weekend, surface based instability values will be much higher. Over the weekend, the storms came through North Alabama Saturday night with very little instability, which really prevented a major severe weather problem. Surface dewpoints had a hard time getting above 60, and there we no surface based CAPE. But, as we look to Thursday, the CAPE values Thursday afternoon are forecast to be over 1,000 j/kg, and the lifted index below -4. Wind fields aren’t quite as strong, but certainly supportive of severe weather.

Of course, we won’t know the mesoscale details of the system until it gets its act together east of the Rocky Mountains on Wednesday. But, it sure looks like we will have another chance of severe thunderstorms Thursday afternoon into Thursday night.

FRIDAY AND THE WEEKEND: The weather will be cool and dry for Friday and the weekend; looks like highs might drop into the 50s, with lows below the freezing mark by Sunday morning.

LONG RANGE: The 06Z GFS hints the next big rain event will come around March 9. No sign of any really big late season Arctic outbreak, but I still expect one or two before we get to April. There is plenty of very cold air available not far away, up in Canada.

SPECIAL ABC 33/40 NOAA WEATHER RADIO OFFER: You can purchase a top of the line Midland NOAA Weather Radio at any Publix or Handy TV location in this part of Alabama for only $29.95. These receivers have the new digital technology that allows you to choose the counties for which the alarm sounds. Get more information here.

WEATHER PARTY: Get all the latest weather news over on our sister site, WeatherParty.com. Be sure and register while you are there; you can submit stories and vote on them to determine what is published on the front page.

I am off to Walker County this morning to speak to the students at Lupton Junior High School… I will have the afternoon Weather Xtreme Video posted by 3:30 this afternoon!

Category: Uncategorized