More Showers And Storms Later Today

Showers and storms were expected to be a little more plentiful yesterday and today, and coverage was about what was expected, but rainfall amounts were very light. Only a few lucky spots got appreciable rainfall. One was the area around Huntsville, where flash flood warnings were required. Evening storms prompted a flash flood warning for northern Cullman County. Areas around Vinemont and Hartselle in Morgan County may have picked up two inches of rain. Closer to home, a band around Springville where over an inch fell from a strong afternoon storm. A small area near Homewood may have also picked up an inch. Birmingham reached 93 for the afternoon high. Gadsden topped out at 86 before showers and storms dropped the mercury to 77. Anniston also benefitted from showers, falling from a high of 91 to 79 in less than an hour. As far as showers, West Alabama did not see as many, actually nearly none. This allowed the mercury at Tuscaloosa to reach 94.

SUNDAY/MONDAY STORMS: High moisture levels and passing disturbances will trigger scattered showers and storms today and tomorrow before our persistent summer nemesis, the subtropical ridge, flexes its might and dries us out and limits our shower/storm chances starting Tuesday. The mercury will edge upwards in response, with highs in the middle and upper 90s through Thursday.

WEEKEND: We will start to see the eastern edge of the ridge weaken a bit by the weekend and a trough will start to develop over the eastern United States. This trough will allow us to see a few more showers and storms by the weekend with the attending slightly cooler temperatures. We could even see some 80s at some point! Wouldn’t that be nice? The trough will also play a major role in our next tropical player: Emily.

EMILY: The strong tropical wave that is a couple of days east of the Lesser Antilles continues to become better organized and a tropical depression is imminent. Meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center are monitoring the system on satellite and a Hurricane Hunter plane will investigate Sunday afternoon. The system looks like it will move across the northeastern Caribbean starting Monday night, crossing Puerto Rico and exiting into the Atlantic on Wednesday in response to that trough forming over the eastern U.S. The system will probably pause as the trough lifts out and high pressure builds back in to the north, but another trough later in the week should pick up the system and shunt it out to sea away from the U.S. It will bear watching however The system should become a tropical storm, getting the name Emily by early in the week and could be a decent hurricane later this week east of the Bahamas.

Tags: storms

Category: Alabama's Weather