Wedge Wedges Into Alabama

The forecast challenge of the wedge or cold air damming is always a big one. I managed to put together two images I regularly use that shows the influence of a couple of different factors. Those factors and clouds/no clouds and the wedge.

Here’s the graphic with observations overlaid on the satellite image.

The two interesting areas that I want to draw attention to are Southwest Alabama and East Central Alabama.

Southwest Alabama: Here there are very few clouds and no effects from the wedge and temperatures have shot up into the upper 70s and lower 80s. Looks like an absolutely day for the beach, too.

East Central Alabama: The clouds have held down the heating, but the wedge seems to have made its way to Birmingham. With a rather smooth gradient in temperature along I-20, it’s hard to define an exact demarcation for the boundary of the wedge, and I suspect ten meteorologists would place it in ten different spots. But I’d place the western extent roughly from between Auburn and Montgomery to about Birmingham and then to Muscle Shoals. The temperature gradient or change along the line from Tuscaloosa to Atlanta is really quite amazing with a 21 degree change of 68 at TCL to 47 at ATL.

Just one of those interesting days where the forecast is a tad complex and a bit harder to explain.

-Brian-

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