Eyes On The Gulf This Weekend

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player on the right sidebar of the blog. You can subscribe to the Weather Xtreme video on iTunes by clicking here.

STILL HOT: Today is the last day of meteorological summer, but we all know our weather stays hot through early September. After all, the hottest temperature on record in Alabama, 112 degrees, was recorded on the fifth day of September, way back in 1925. We still expect highs in the 90s through the weekend with little chance of significant rain through Saturday. Look for partly to mostly sunny, hot, hazy days and fair nights. You might see a blip or two on radar during the afternoon and evening hours, but most places stay dry.

FOOTBALL WEATHER: Mostly fair weather for the high school games tomorrow and Friday night; kickoff temperatures will be around 90, falling through the 80s during the game. I can’t completely rule out the risk of an isolated shower somewhere around here, but most stadiums will be dry.

First college football weekend of the season gets underway this weekend. Alabama hosts Kent State at Bryant Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa; the kickoff will come shorty before 11:30 Saturday morning; the sky will be partly sunny with a kickoff temperature of around 90 degrees, rising into the low to mid 90s during the game. The chance of a shower during the game is only in the 20 percent range. Auburn hosts Utah State at Jordan-Hare Stadium; at the 11:00 a.m. kickoff the temperature should be near 87 degrees, rising into the low 90s by the fourth quarter. Much like Tuscaloosa, the chance of a shower during the game is only about one in five.

LABOR DAY WEEKEND STORM IN THE GULF? Confidence is high that the tropical wave in the Northwest Caribbean becomes Tropical Storm Lee at some point over the holiday weekend. How strong it gets, and where it goes will be the subject of great weeping and gnashing of teeth in coming days. Watch the Weather Xtreme video and you will see pure model madness; the 00Z GFS brings the system toward the big bend region of Florida late in the weekend with very little impact on Alabama. The 00Z ECMWF, however, takes it toward the coast of Texas.

Gut feeling here says it could be an issue for the Central Gulf Coast, somewhere from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, by the middle of next week. Best case scenario is that the system stays offshore through Labor Day, and then moves up in here by Tuesday or Wednesday as a weak tropical storm with beneficial rain. Worst case is Lee developing into a hurricane, of course.

There will be wild speculation, but nobody knows right now how this will all play out. If you have a trip planned to the Gulf Coast this weekend, places like Gulf Shores or Destin, no need to panic now. Just go ahead and have fun, but be aware that the surf could be rough, and you could be dealing with some rain by Sunday and Monday. Maybe lots of rain, but on the other hand maybe not much at all. We will have much better clarity on this by Friday. Again, please take a few minutes to watch the Weather Xtreme video for graphics and complete details.

KATIA: The tropical storm in the Central Atlantic is expected to become a major hurricane over the weekend north of Puerto Rico. All global models recurve Katia over the open Atlantic, not impacting the East Coast of the U.S. However, those on the island of Bermuda will need to keep up with developments since the track could be close to them.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 90 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.

FOLLOW ALONG: Here are our weather team Twitter accounts….

I will be speaking at Alabama Power Company’s downtown headquarters this morning… look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 3:30 or so this afternoon. Enjoy the day!

Tags: hot

Category: Alabama's Weather