A Magnificant March Day

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

A rather benign weather pattern will continue through the weekend, and nobody around here is complaining. Looks like we can safely forecast afternoon high temperatures around 70 degrees on a daily basis through Friday with a partly to mostly sunny sky each day. Nights will remain chilly, but temperatures will remain above freezing.

THE WEEKEND: The 12Z run of the GFS continues to back off on the idea of any really significant rain here over the weekend. I guess we will need to continue some mention of showers Saturday night, but with little low level moisture and hardly any upper air support, rainfall amounts should be very light and spotty if rain develops at all. Highs for the weekend should be in the mid to upper 60s.

NEXT WEEK: The 12Z GFS takes a fairly strong upper vorticity center over Texas and moves it eastward, finally impacting Alabama by Wednesday of next week (March 14) with a decent chance of rain and storms. But, the 06Z run took that system into the western Gulf of Mexico, so the confidence on any specific solution is rather small right now.

LONG RANGE: About the time the weather looks relatively warm and dry for the next two weeks, the 12Z GFS ruins that idea and develops a cold, long wave trough over the eastern part of the nation in the March 16-19 time frame. For now we will consider this run and outlier and not change anything. But, should be model be correct, we will have a very sharp late season cold snap in 10 to 13 days from now. Still no sign of any major severe weather threat in the next 16 days.

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. We understand Handy TV locations in Alabama just got a shipment of 1,800 delivered today, so hopefully their stores will be restocked during the next 36 hours.

NWS SKYWARN TRAINING TONIGHT: A reminder the National Weather Service will be conducting a SKYWARN class tonight in Cherokee County at the EMA office in Centre… it begins at 6:30. There is no admission and everyone interested in becoming a volunteer storm spotter is welcome.

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. There is always something interesting to read over there.

Thanks to the 3rd graders at Gardendale Elementary for their hospitality today; be watching for them on the KIDCAM on ABC 33/40 News today at 5:00! I will have the next Weather Xtreme video posted by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow….

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