A Touch of Autumn in the Air

| September 4, 2010 @ 7:11 am | 3 Replies

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Thanks to a cold front that has moved through Central Alabama overnight, we are going to be seeing and feeling a touch of autumn with cooler and drier air in place for the next couple of days. The drier air lags behind the actual front just a tad. At 5 am, the dew point was down to 49 at Muscle Shoals while Dothan was still sitting at 71. But the drier air will filter into and across Central Alabama today with highs much cooler as we rise to the lower 80s for most locations.

The cooler air will really be felt tomorrow morning with morning lows in the lower 50s. In fact, some spots are likely to drop back to the upper 40s. Now that will really feel refreshing!

The upper ridge builds back starting at the first of the week, so the cooler air will be somewhat short-lived as highs climb back to the upper 80s on Monday and lower 90s for most of the rest of the week. But I expect the overall weather to remain rain-free. A front next Saturday could present a chance for some showers, however, like the front that moved through yesterday and last night, it could also be moisture starved with very few showers. For now, I’m holding off on any mention of showers.

The tropics remain active with five systems being carefully watched – Earl, Fiona, the remnants of Gaston, a disturbed are in the Southwest Gulf, and another disturbed area off the African continent. Earl gave a glancing blow to New England last night and is heading toward Nova Scotia in a weakened state. Earl is down to a tropical storm and will be going sub-tropical soon.

Fiona is a mere shadow of her former self as it slides by Bermuda and heads out into the open Atlantic. Gaston, on the other hand, seems to be making a comeback. The satellite presentation on Gaston is fairly nice looking this morning, and the NHC puts a 70 percent chance on it regaining tropical storm status during the next 48 hours. The surface ridge has built further west behind Earl, so the track of the remnants of Gaston is into the eastern Caribbean Sea. This is always a bad sign for the Gulf. Getting into the eastern Caribbean does not mean it will definitely become a Gulf storm, however, the chances are fairly high that it could. Gaston will bear watching.

The area of disturbed weather in the Southwest Gulf is too close to land for much development to occur. That area, however, is likely to bring some heavy rain to South Texas and Northeast Mexico over the next several days.

Looking further afield, the “energizer” ridge makes another appearance through much of the long range period, so our heat is not over just yet. However, with the prospects of drier air, perhaps it won’t feel quite so bad. Take heart, though, because the official start to Fall is only about three weeks away!

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. Stay in the know by following the whole gang – here’s the list…

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I expect to have the next Weather Xtreme Video available around 7:30 tomorrow morning. Enjoy the cooler and drier air! Godspeed.

-Brian-

For your meteorological consulting needs, Coleman and Peters, LLC, can provide you with accurate, detailed information on past storms, lightning, flooding, and wind damage. Whether it is an insurance claim needing validation or a court case where weather was a factor, we can furnish you with information you need. Please call us at (205) 568-4401.

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About the Author ()

Brian Peters is one of the television meteorologists at ABC3340 in Birmingham and a retired NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist. He handles the weekend Weather Xtreme Videos and forecast discussion and is the Webmaster for the popular WeatherBrains podcast.

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