Showers over Northwest Alabama

Here is an update on Alabama’s weather as of 11 a.m.

Showers have moved into Northwest Alabama this morning ahead of a cool front that is back near the Mississippi River over western Tennessee. This front extends from the remnant low of Ike, which is moving into southern Illinois.

A long line of showers and storms is ahead of the front, extending from southern Illinois through western Tennessee, back into Mississippi and then into Louisiana.

The best concentration of lightning was over Central Mississippi where increasing storms were east of Greenwood.

The airmass over Mississippi contains quite a bit more moisture than the one over Alabama. The preciptable water on the BMX sounding this morning was around 1.25 inches. The Jackson sounding was about an inch wetter.

Cloudiness is also holding back instability over Alabama. These clouds will continue to thin as we head into the afternoon, but thicker clouds will move in from the west ahead of the front.

North of US-82, the airmass in Aalabama was only slightly unstable at best More instability will accompany the airmass out of Mississippi today. This will set the stage for showers and storms across Alabama this afternoon.

Back to the southwest, at the tail end of the surface trough, we could see the development of a small area of low pressure over Louisiana. This low will push northeast, hopefully extedning our rain chances into at least Monday morning.

We don’t expect any severe weather over Alabama, although stronger storms could tranfer strong winds to the surface this afternoon.

It is breezy over Central Alabama, with south and southwest winds averaging 10-20 mph with higher gusts. Lake wind advisories are in effect for all of North and Central Alabama until 6 p.m.

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