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Nice Day For A Birthday

| April 17, 2008 @ 3:03 pm | 10 Replies

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

What a great day for the birthday boy. J.B. hopefully has been basking in the sunshine today… temperatures are up in the mid 70s this afternoon, right at the average values for April 17.

CHANGES AHEAD: Still looks like the primary window for showers and storms will from 6:00 p.m. tomorrow through 6:00 am. Saturday. The day tomorrow will stay dry with a partly sunny sky and a high in the mid 70s, so for the first time in three weeks we will enjoy a Friday with no severe weather during the daytime hours.

Parameters still don’t look especially favorable for any serious severe weather threat tomorrow night. Both the GFS and the NAM show hardly any surface based CAPE over North Alabama, so instability will be marginal. But, there is some decent upper air support and some helicity involved, so we will need to keep an eye on the radar as always. We still believe rain totals will be somewhere between one-half and three-quarters of an inch, although the NAM is a little wetter, printing 0.85″ for Birmingham.

THE WEEKEND: The rain will end early in the day Saturday, with the sky becoming partly sunny by afternoon with a high in the low 70s. Sunday will be warm and dry, with a good supply of sunshine and a high close to 80 degrees.

NEXT WEEK: The first part of the week will be warm and humid; temperatures will reach the low 80s on Monday and Tuesday, and even though a few isolated afternoon showers could show up, mostly dry weather can be expected with an upper air ridge aloft and a rather stable atmosphere.

The best chance of showers and storms will hold off until Thursday and Friday of next week as a cold front approaches. The main upper support will be lifting northward into Canada, so at this point we don’t expect any major severe weather problems. The rain will linger into at least the first half of the following weekend as the front stalls out.

LONG RANGE IDEAS: The 12Z GFS continues the idea of a sharp upper trough passing through here around April 30 with a chance of strong storms. Then, the primary storm track lifts northward during the first few days of May.

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.

I had a great time speaking to the 3rd graders today at Matthews Elementary in Northport… be watching for them on the KIDCAM today at 5:00 on ABC 33/40 News! The next Weather Xtreme video will be posted here by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow…

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About the Author ()

James Spann is one of the most recognized and trusted television meteorologists in the industry. He holds the AMS CCM designation and television seals from the AMS and NWA. He is a past winner of the Broadcast Meteorologist of the Year from both professional organizations.

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