An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes…
Thanks to the gang from ABC 33/40 and The Weather Company for allowing me to have a little down time. I run really, really hard from September to May, and with school starting back up in August, only June and July offer any real down time. I will take a full week off later in the month as I journey up to Washington, DC for an awards ceremony and a little family fun.
DROUGHT MONITOR: Not much has changed since I left last week; our rain total for the year at the Birmingham Airport remains 10.28″, and the deficiency for the year is now a whopping 15.37″. I have great fear water systems around our state will increase the restrictions on water use very soon, if not this week.
HOPE FOR RAIN? Now that June is here, it will be hard to find a day without some risk of a brief afternoon shower or thunderstorm in a few spots. I will probably write my annual “summer guide to weather forecasting in Alabama” this week for newcomers and those that don’t understand how the summer forecasting process works.
Today we do have a weak surface front pushing into North Alabama, which should serve up a few scattered showers and storms this afternoon. I get the idea the most numerous ones will be over the southern half of the state, but a few lucky neighborhoods might catch a shower over the northern counties as well.
The hope of an afternoon shower will diminish slowly during the rest of the week as an upper ridge builds across the Southeast U.S. Sure, there is always a chance, but with the warm air aloft associated with the ridge, that will serve to cap off most of the developing showers. And, with the lack of soil moisture, look out for some pretty intense heat for early June. Mid 90s seem likely by Friday and the weekend, with a few upper 90s possible for the western counties of Alabama. The sun’s energy won’t have to work on evaporating soil moisture; it will be mainly used to heat the ground, which heats the air. Hot is the word for the latter half of this week and the coming weekend.
LONG RANGE: No sign of any big rain event through June 19; the GFS does show a nice short wave passing north of here around June 16, which helps to drag a cold front into North Alabama with some hope for increased shower activity. The tropics don’t seem to offer anything interesting, at least in the Gulf of Mexico, for the next couple of weeks.
WEATHER PARTY: Get all the latest weather news over on our sister site, WeatherParty.com. Be sure and register while you are there; you can submit stories and vote on them to determine what is published on the front page. Lots to read over there as usual.
All this week I will be speaking to the kids at Vacation Bible School at Double Oak Community Church in Mount Laurel; next week it is Summer Quest at Hunter Street Baptist Church. I will have a ton of fun… the next Weather Xtreme video will be posted by 3:30 this afternoon!
