Wet, Wet, Wet

| January 3, 2009 @ 7:25 am | 10 Replies

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As the title implies, it looks like 2009 will start pretty wet with wet weather forecast from today through early Wednesday. This morning Central Alabama was waking up to a few showers that were quickly moving off to the northeast. It appears that much of the day until later this afternoon will be just cloudy but rain free except for patchy drizzle or rain with the presence of the low clouds. Fog was also occurring this morning and should be diminishing by mid morning.

Tonight we’ll see a round of showers and thunderstorms. Greatest problem for us will be heavy rain potential with about 2 inches expected in this round of wet weather. Severe weather or strong thunderstorms could occur especially to our southwest and SPC has outlooked an area encompassing the central Gulf Coast for Day 1. Another window of instability Sunday could produce some thunder, too, but the SPC has not outlooked a specific area since weak lapse rates and marginal shear should preclude any organized severe weather.

Early Monday we should see a lull in the wet weather, but that lull will be short-lived as the next system comes at us Monday night and Tuesday. And this system may be the strongest with a large portion of Alabama and Mississippi in the Day 4 outlook for severe weather. Heavy rain may once again be a possibility with the five day total reaching 3 inches – January average rainfall is 5.45″, so we could be approaching half the monthly average in just six days.

Sunshine returns on Wednesday, but JB Elliott will forget to close the freezer door AGAIN! I expect Wednesday to be one of those days – and we’ve seen several of these this season already – with temperatures steady or falling in the 40s.

The long wave trough over the eastern half of the US will keep us cold through the end of the week. And the latest GFS has added a wrinkle to the possible events around Saturday, January 10th. A strong trough closes off over Old Mexico which shifts the moisture further south. This should preclude any threat of winter weather next weekend while we remain at or below the average temperatures for early January. But this is on the edge of voodoo, and I won’t be surprised to see a different solution before next weekend arrives.

Well into voodoo country and the GFS shows another round of wet weather on the 15th/16th with a slight pattern moderation at the end of the cycle. But this still looks colder than average.

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Thanks for dropping by the Weather Xtreme Video. I’ll be filling in this weekend for Ashley Brand who was filling in for James Spann, so be sure to catch the news and weather on ABC 3340 at 6 and 10 pm this evening. I hope you have a great Saturday. Godspeed.

-Brian-

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About the Author ()

Brian Peters is one of the television meteorologists at ABC3340 in Birmingham and a retired NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist. He handles the weekend Weather Xtreme Videos and forecast discussion and is the Webmaster for the popular WeatherBrains podcast.

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