Rain Diminishing North Alabama

That strange-looking line of thunderstorms that was pushing south through Mississippi decided to join hands with the west end of the line that was across South Alabama.

So now, we have a long line of thunderstorms stretching from Central Louisiana and South Mississippi across Extreme South Alabama and then curving up through West Georgia. It is a weird-looking array.

All of this shuffling is cheating North Alabama out of some more beneficial rain. Although strong storms remain over NE Alabama, much of North and NW Alabama has seen the opportunity for additional rain simply fade away. This includes places like Huntsville, Birmingham, Florence and Hamilton, to name a few.

BENEFICIAL RAIN BUT NOT NEARLY ENOUGH: When we are in the midst of one of our worst droughts ever, there is almost no way that we can get enough rain at one time to put a great dent in the drought. But a little baby has to take baby steps and, accordingly, we will have to take it a step at a time to get over the huge rain deficit. It will not be easy and I have an eerie feeling that we will still show a deficit at Christmas.

We are elated at the rain today. A big percentage of the state got rain and some of it was heavy. Unfortunately, a lot of folks got just enough rain to be a teaser. A few selected amounts:
0.95 at Mobile Airport
0.60 Oneonta
0.62 Montgomery
1.20 SW Trussville

Big thunderstorms were roaming South Alabama this afternoon dumping extremely heavy rain and overdosing the area with dangerous lightning. There were also some strong storms up in NE Alabama. To the west, most of the south half of Mississippi was under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch. We could also see a few severe thunderstorms down over South and SE Alabama for the remainder of today.

The thunderstorms will diminsh tonight and, believe it or not, we have a cold front waiting in the wings. To be more accurate, we should call it a cool front. It will move into the state overnight and eventually push down into South Alabama. By tomorrow afternoon, the dew point will drop into the 50s over the north. This means lower humidity and drier air. With a brisk north wind, that is not good news. It will seem like some areas did not even get any rain with the quick drying effect.

We will see some cooler nights. By Thursday morning, look for some upper 50s in some of the North Alabama valleys. Afternoons will get hotter with highs Friday and Saturday in the low to mid 90s. After tonight, we do not have any additional rain in the forecast through Saturday. I sure wish I could be the bearer of better news.

TROPICAL WEATHER: A couple of tropical waves way out in the Atlantic, but they show little or no promise and the National Hurricane Center does not expect anything for the next 48 hours, which is their normal outlook time.

Category: Pre-November 2010 Posts