The Sunday edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme Video is available in the player below, and on iTunes…
We had a nearly picture perfect day yesterday, and today is shaping up to be a duplicate. The only thing troubling about this good weather is the complete lack of rain. The Birmingham airport climate data shows that tomorrow we will reach a total rainfall deficit for 2007 of one FOOT – 12 inches below normal. And to make matters worse, the GFS has gone sharply drier for the next two weeks. Water rationing may be just over the horizon.
Lots of storms off to the west yesterday with 19 tornadoes reported. Scroll down in the Blog for some posts by Bill Murray about the events of yesterday. Severe weather focus shifts toward the western Great Lakes today, but then shifts back to the southwest on Monday. And holy tornado Batman, SPC has gone with a moderate risk for the Southern Plains on Day 3 – Tuesday into early Wednesday. Their forecast looks good, but we’ll have to see if all the parameters come together three days out.
Our work week starts warm and dry with the next chance of rain coming late Wednesday and during the first half of Thursday. There are some disturbing trends in the model solutions that are suggesting very little rain for Central Alabama. And that second shot of rain the model was suggesting for next Saturday is completely gone with a dramatic shift in the model solution. That’s really good news for the race weekend at Talladega. If the GFS trend to develop a trough over the eastern half of the country verifies, then race weekend could be rain-free with temperatures in the lower 70s – fine race watching weather!!
Voodoo land also has shown a big change. Yesterday I mentioned the long range forecast of a colder episode during the first week of May. Today’s GFS has nothing like that at all. What the GFS has done, though, is grab onto this drought thing with a passion with much of the next two weeks warm and dry. But I’ll watch those trends and see of that changes – long range flip flopping is common and to be expected.
Special thanks to the folks at First Baptist Church in Alabaster for the invitation to their safety fair yesterday – I had a great time out there with them. James Spann will be back bright and early tomorrow morning with the next Weather Xtreme Video. And I’ve got a busy week ahead with a number of talks including a big event at Hokes Bluff on Thursday evening. Have a great week and God bless.
-Brian-
