Rain Continues along with Flooding

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As of 5 am, the Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport had recorded 2.15 inches of rain while at my house in Helena, I had recorded 3.31 inches of rain. Rain will continue today, but rainfall is not expected to be as heavy as what we have seen. But the ground is definitely saturated, so any additional rain will got straight to runoff and aggravate the already soggy situation. Drivers need to be alert to the potential for running into flooding, and remember the slogan, TADD – Turn Around Don’t Drown since nearly 75 percent of all flash flood deaths are associated with vehicles. An additional 1 inch of rain is possible for Central Alabama, so please take the flooding issue seriously.

The front moves by late today as the upper trough ejects out of the Southwest US. The really cold air holds a little to our north as the upper flow goes nearly zonal. We will cool down to values a little below seasonal values, but nothing in the way of extremely cold temperatures.

The upper air flow remains zonal for the end of December and 2014 and into January 1st while the main action remains well west of us as a closed low digs into the Southwest US. That system ejects out to the northeast on January 2nd bringing rain back into the forecast for Central Alabama. The upper short wave trough goes by on Saturday, but much like the current weather system, the upper flow goes into a long wave trough over the eastern half of the country, so we can expect a cool down but nothing extremely cold.

The GFS maintains a coolish look to the upper air pattern through about the 10th, but another short wave trough coming out of the Rockies promises more wet weather for us around the 12th.

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Just remember we are on a one-a-day cycle with the Weather Xtreme Video as James Spann is enjoying a few well earned days off. I will have the next video posted here on Monday morning. Ill be filling in for Meaghan Thomas on ABC 3340 News at 5 and 10 pm this evening, so catch the latest weather information then. I head out for Pasadena on Monday, so not sure about the schedule but will do my best to have at least some discussions here, but probably not early morning since I will be two hours earlier than Central Alabama. Follow my tweets on twitter at HelenaWX. Please be careful with the flooding potential and be safe. Godspeed.

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather