Drier Days Ahead

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RIGHT NOW: Showers are mainly south of a line from Fayette to Jasper to Ashville to Jacksonville; north of that line dewpoints are beginning to drop and dry air is taking over. The dry air will continue to drop south tonight, and it sure looks like the rest of the week will be mostly dry for the northern half of Alabama.

Right now we have no official reporting station at 90 degrees or hotter; pretty amazing for July. But, don’t worry, the heat will come back. With a good deal of sunshine, look for highs around 90 tomorrow and Wednesday, followed by mid 90s Thursday and Friday as a strong upper air ridge (the ole 594 circle; watch the Weather Xtreme video) builds in from the west. Parts of West Alabama could see upper 90s by Friday afternoon. Good ole summer in Alabama.

THE WEEKEND: The 12Z GFS keeps the upper ridge on top of us, and at this point the weather looks mostly hot and dry over the weekend, with highs in the mid 90s. Understand there is almost always some risk of a pop-up, splash and dash afternoon shower or storm around here this time of the year during the peak of the heat, but they should be very isolated.

NEXT WEEK: The ridge begins to shift westward again, which should mean highs dropping back a bit, into the low 90s, next week with some risk of an afternoon shower or storm on a daily basis.

VOODOO LAND: The good news is that there is still no sign of any really serious heat wave around here through late July, but we all know it is going to be hot and humid one way or another. The GFS keeps the big heat out over the Southwest U.S. And, the model is also trying to spin up a tropical storm east of the Bahamas in about 12 to 15 days; we will keep an eye on the tropics. But for now, the Atlantic basin is quiet.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute 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. We will record a few show tonight; it should be posted by 10:30. Steve Harned, the executive director of the National Weather Association, will be our guest tonight.

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I truly had a wonderful time visiting with all of the teachers at the AMSTI Institute this morning at Oxford Middle School. Thanks to all of them for the dedication and sacrifice; this program (The Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative) will go a long way in making our public education system much better. Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!

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