An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below and on iTunes.
Gadzook!! Groundhogs saw their shadows this morning, so that means six more weeks of winter – IF you believe in that sort of thing!! Actually, some groundhogs might not have seen their shadow this morning since we do have some clouds moving across the sky. And that moisture is coming all the way from the Pacific. Even with some clouds, though, I think we’ll see a bright day and a definite warm up is in store with the afternoon temperatures climbing into the lower 60s. That will certainly feel nice after a couple of cool days.
The warmth should stick around Sunday and Monday as the surface high moves off to our east and the upper flow remains southwesterly. The southwesterly flow aloft should bring lots and lots of Pacific moisture into the Southeast US producing a sizable rain event from late Sunday into early Wednesday. I completely forgot to plug in the QPF map into the video, so I’ll mention here that the HPC folks are moving up on my favorable list with a swath of forecast precip in the 1.5 to 2.5 inch range running across the northern half of Alabama. If the amounts come to fruition, it will really help the drought situation for us.
But the deep trough over the Western US will kick out on Tuesday bringing what currently appears to be a significant round of severe weather. It looks like deep moisture will make it pretty far north – into the Ohio River Valley. With the warmth that should also be in place – highs here pushing the 70-degree mark pretty hard – we should see some pretty good instability values. We’re likely to see severe storms possible from Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning in Central Alabama. Little too early to pin down exact timing, but the GFS has been fairly consistent in a late day event for us.
The upper trough and surface front sweep through so that Wednesday should be mostly dry though clouds and some drizzle might stick around. Another upper trough drops in on Thursday, but the primary influence should be across the Mid-Atlantic states with only clouds here thanks to limited moisture. It will remain cool but not extremely cold for us with the end of week temperatures near seasonal values with lows in the 30s and highs in the 50s. And the weekend looks dry at this time.
The overall weather pattern remains fairly active in the longer range with the primary focus in the upper levels on a trough along the East Coast. Another big trough around the 17th promises another big round of weather, but that’s way out into voodoo country.
Don’t forget Storm Alert 2008! We kicked it off in Oak Grove Thursday night and we’ll be in Anniston this coming Thursday. You can get all of the details here.
I started the weekend with a wonderful treat – the Alabama Symphony Orchestra playing some fantastic Beethoven. My ears are still delighting in the wonderful music from the orchestra under the direction of Justin Brown. Birmingham and Central Alabama are certainly blessed to have the high caliber orchestra that we have. If you’ve never heard them, give it a try – tickets are not really that expensive and your ears will thank you!! I hope you have a great weekend. God bless.
-Brian-
