Tranquil, Storms Wednesday

The latest edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below. You can subscribe to the Weather Xtreme video on iTunes by clicking here.

I’m uncertain as to what happened yesterday with the video. The only thing I could figure out is that YouTube had some sort of processing slow down but it finally got done. I hope that doesn’t happen today.

The fast upper flow will see a short wave zip by today with the greatest rain threat across the Gulf Coast and South Alabama. Here we’ll see some patches of light rain or drizzle with rainfall amounts expected to be very light – less than 5 hundredths of an inch – and many folks will stay dry. Temperatures will rise into the mid and upper 50s with some sunshine possible for the afternoon hours.

Monday and Tuesday will be mild with cool mornings and warm afternoons – the lows pretty close to what we expect in mid-February while the highs will be a bit above seasonal values with a high in the lower 60s on Tuesday.

The big day right now appears to be Wednesday. And this looks a lot like the situation we had last week with questions about instability. The SPC has outlooked nearly all of Alabama and Mississippi in the Day 4 Outlook. Significant cloud cover could limit heating, but a strong low level flow should clearly advect Gulf moisture northward. So we’ll be watching the developments of this situation. It appears likely that much of the area could see rainfall amounts of 1 to 2 inches with widespread 1 inch amounts. That will be welcome since February seems to be running a little light on rain across North and Central Alabama.

A series of strong short waves help to develop the long wave position over the eastern half of the country from Thursday through Saturday. It appears that Thursday will be a cold, brisk day with temperatures either falling much of the day or staying steady in the upper 40s/lower 50s. Friday and Saturday will be quite chilly with Saturday shaping up to be the coldest day as the East Coast trough becomes the sharpest. Short waves traveling through the long wave trough could bring clouds and perhaps some snow flurries to northern Alabama on Thursday and Saturday, but at this time it does not appear to be anything that would have a significant impact on us.

By Sunday, we should begin a moderating trend that will take us into the next week as the long wave trough migrates east bringing us back under a weak ridge.

The long range GFS projections continue to show a good progressive flow with rain producing systems possible around the 24th/25th and again around the 28th.

Don’t forget to listen to our weekly netcast anytime on the web or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left.

And you can follow news and weather updates from ABC 33/40 on Twitter here. And, my personal Twitter feed is here if you want to keep up with the adventures and mis-adventures in my life. Twitter is a short messaging service you can receive via the web, cell phone, or IM.

Off to church this morning – it’s my week to usher for the early service. And I’ve got to start working on taxes – ugh! James Spann will be back first thing tomorrow morning with the next Weather Xtreme Video. Godspeed.

-Brian-

Category: Uncategorized