Rain Returns Tomorrow Night

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes…

What a great warm-up today… after a sub-freezing start in many areas, temperatures this afternoon are a good 35 degrees warmer. At 1:00… Birmingham had warmed to 66, while Montgomery was reporting 70 degrees with a bright, sunny sky.

The attention today will still be focused on two storm systems we will deal with during the next week.

STORM NUMBER ONE: Clouds will return to Alabama late tonight and tomorrow, but it still looks like the primary chance of rain and thunderstorms will from about 6:00 p.m. tomorrow through 4:00 a.m. Wednesday. The NAM still is aggressive with the rain potential; the 12Z run is printing 1.32″ for Birmingham (the GFS is still drier with 0.83″). We do note the lifted index will be a little below zero tomorrow night, and the NAM shows a surface based CAPE value of 104 j/kg, so thunderstorms will be possible. But, severe weather up here around this part of Alabama looks unlikely. SPC maintains a slight risk of severe weather tomorrow night for the southwest part of our state.

COLD SHOT WEDNESDAY: Wednesday will be much colder; despite a clearing sky, looks like we won’t make it out of the mid 40s with a chilly north wind. Temperatures will drop into the 24 to 29 degree range at daybreak Thursday.

Thursday looks like a dry day with ample sunshine and a high back up to around 60.

STORM NUMBER TWO: The second storm system will bring another round of rain and storms to Alabama by Friday night. We are dealing with model madness; the 12Z run of the GFS looks radically different than the 06Z run in that it keeps the upper trough to the west of Alabama through Saturday, meaning periods of rain and thunderstorms would be likely Friday night into the daytime hours on Saturday. Drier air drops into the Tennessee Valley Saturday, however, and areas along and north of U.S. 278 look dry.

We might even have to mention some risk of lingering light rain Sunday morning as the system departs. Then, much colder air rolls into Alabama Sunday night and Monday.

We really need to to get storm number one out of here before we can feel too confident in how to handle storm number two.

VOODOO LAND: The weather looks active and very changeable through the rest of February. No point in trying to be specific with any system beyond seven days in this kind of weather pattern.

STORM ALERT 2008 IN NORTHPORT TOMORROW NIGHT: We will begin the show at the Northport Civic Center at 7:00 tomorrow night… and the doors will open at 5:00. Come early to get a good seat and some cool free stuff. We hope to see you there!

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. This week’s new episode will deal with last week’s Super Tuesday tornado outbreak, and Tim Simpson of WREG-TV in Memphis will be our special guest. We hope to have it posted by 10:00 or 11:00 tonight.

I need to mention I had a great time early yesterday morning at Rockford Baptist Church down in Coosa County… thanks so much for the hospitality. And, today, I was in Bibb County to speak to all of the students at Randolph Elementary School. They were a great audience… be looking for them on the KIDCAM today at 5:00 on ABC 33/40 News! The next Weather Xtreme video will be posted by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!

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.

Category: Uncategorized