Afternoon Weather Notes

Patchy light rain and sprinkles continued across Central Alabama this afternoon with additional rain occurring across the Alabama and Northwest Florida Gulf Coast.

Temperatures at 2 pm were fairly uniform in the lower and middle 70s with an extensive cloud cover. If you wanted sunshine in Alabama, the only real location to find any was the extreme northwest corner of the state. Temperatures there were topping out near 80. The reasons for the cool weather were threefold – the clouds, the widespread light rain, and cold air damming or wedge which had created an easterly surface flow bringing unseasonably cool air around the southern end of the Appalachians.

The high in Birmingham yesterday was only 70 degrees. This actually set a new record low maximum temperature for the date breaking – maybe shattering would be a better word – the old record of 76 set in 1973.

The cool weather may last another day, but I expect to see temperatures back into the middle 80s during the coming week.

The official rainfall total at the Birmingham airport since January 1st stands at 51.73″ which is almost 17 inches above where we should be at this time of year. By the way, the average annual rainfall in Birmingham is about 54 inches, so we are very close to our annual total already. Anyone remember the year we were 2 feet below our average? Maybe we will actually be 2 feet above by the end of 2013.

Anniston has recorded 55.03 inches so far and Tuscaloosa seems relatively parched at 38.23 inches which is still nearly 4 inches above their seasonal total into mid-August.

And to answer the question on many minds, there actually is no known correlation between a cool, wet summer and the upcoming Fall or Winter seasons. If there were a definite, the job of long range forecasting would be somewhat easier!!

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather