Another Lovely Day Here

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The weather is always changing, one of the interesting characteristics for people in the field of meteorology. So while today will not be a complete carbon copy of yesterday, it is going to be another beautiful day. But there are changes on the horizon. The sky will be clear for the most part with a few afternoon clouds dotting the sky, but a subtle change is beginning with moisture on the increase. If you were outside yesterday, you probably noticed the lowered humidity. And while we benefit from that again today, dew points will begin to climb slowly as values climb from near 60 this morning back into the upper 60s by tomorrow evening. 86 was the high at the Birmingham airport yesterday, and we should see 88 or 89 today with some spots probably nudging back to 90 degrees.

As the northwesterly flow diminishes, a weak ridge builds into the Southeast today. But the big ridge remains well off to the west through Thursday. This means that a stream of weak disturbances moving through the upper flow will come into the eastern US bringing us favorable conditions for showers and thunderstorms on Monday and Tuesday. These weak short waves along with diurnal heating will add in the development of showers. This upper air pattern also will allow a front to sag into the area on Monday and Tuesday. We don’t typically see many fronts this time of year, but this one is likely to stall out across southern Alabama. So we won’t see a complete air mass change, we should see at least a minor reduction in humidity as slightly drier air makes it to Central Alabama behind the front. Without much push, the front is likely to wash out by Thursday and Friday. This together with the movement of the upper ridge back into our vicinity means we’ll be returning to a summer-ish pattern with those daily chances for showers.

Temperatures will stay near the 90-degree mark for much of the rest of week, values not too bad considering we are at the middle of June. The 30-year average high for Birmingham based on records there is 88 with a corresponding low of 68.

Severe weather for the next several days will be confined primarily to the Central Plains states as we saw yesterday thanks to the favorable upslope flow. There is a potential for an MCS (meso-scale convective system) to form in the area from the Texas Panhandle to western Nebraska and propagate to the southeast. Looking further south, the tropics remain quiet.

Long range model projections, also known as voodoo country, continue to keep the heat at bay with a somewhat flattened ridge over the eastern part of the US. But that changes by the 30th with a huge heat bubble in the form of the 594 height contour over the Upper Mississippi River Valley which would spell some big time heat for much of the Central US.

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Thanks for tuning into the Weather Xtreme Video. I anticipate posting the next video first thing on Sunday morning. Enjoy the day and Godspeed.

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather