Out with the Low Clouds, in with the High Clouds: Pretty Sunset Alert?

To understand the skies over Alabama this afternoon, you have to look at moisture at different levels.

The relative humidity at about 10,000 feet, or 700 mb, is very dry over all of Alabama and surrounding states.

No clouds at that level.

At 850 mb, or 5,000 feet, moisture levels are still high (see the shades of green and yellow), but drier air is moving in thanks to the combined efforts of the clockwise flow around high pressure over Texas and some dry air changing lanes from the northwesterly flow over the Midwest into the flow around the high.

The drying will combine with increasing low-level heating from increasing sunshine to continue to think the low clouds through the afternoon.

Up higher, around 32,000 feet, at 300 mb, lots of moisture is about to move over Alabama from the west.

That moisture is headed our way in the form of cirrus and other forms of high clouds. It could make for a beautiful sunset this afternoon, as well as a few sun dogs and other optical atmospheric phenomena.

Here is the visible satellite:

Temperatures are in the 50s across the area. Dannelly Field in Montgomery is the Central Alabama warm spot, at 61F.

Lows tonight under the high clouds at times will drop into the middle 30s north of I-20 and lower 40s south. Most spots should stay above freezing, except for the usual suspects. You know who you are.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS