Cooler To The East; Hotter To The West

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

As expected, we have a pretty significant temperature gradient across Alabama this afternoon… at 1:00 Tuscaloosa reported a steamy 94, while Anniston was at 89. That will be the story through mid-week; the hottest places will be over on the western side of the state where mid 90s are likely. Some communities near the Georgia border might fail to reach 90. And, a few scattered showers or storms will remain possible over far East Alabama tomorrow and Thursday, but a large percentage of Alabama will remain dry.

With a northerly flow aloft, we will still need to watch areas north of here for any thunderstorm development; sometimes a big MCS can roll in here at a very odd hour of the day. And, those are rarely handled well by models. No sign of that happening during the next 24 hours, however.

The upper trough over the Atlantic seaboard will slowly weaken by the end of the week, and over the weekend our weather will remain generally hot and dry, with highs in the 90s and only isolated showers or storms during the afternoon and evening hours.

NEXT WEEK: The 12Z GFS continues to advertise a nice cold front moving in here late Tuesday of next week, supported by a strong upper trough for June over the Great Lakes. The model has been very consistent in this feature, and if it is correct we will have a generous increase in the number of showers and thunderstorms statewide one week from today.

LONG RANGE: The good news is that the GFS does not build a nasty upper high over the Deep South for the rest of the month; that should mean no runaway heat (long periods of upper 90s or triple digits). But with the lack of soil moisture temperatures should remain above normal for the next couple of weeks, and probably beyond that.

WEATHER BRAINS: Catch the all-new episode of WeatherBrains on the web, or on iTunes. We recorded the show last night… see the show notes on the post right below this one.

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.

I had a great time today seeing the children in Kids College at Bevill State Community College; I spoke to separate groups in Jasper and Sumiton today… look for them on the KIDCAM on ABC 33/40 News at 5:00 today. I will have the next Weather Xtreme video posted by 7:00 a.m tomorrow…

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