An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes…
Be sure and scroll down and see the pictures from the Brian Peters/Tim Coleman trip up the Warrior River. One of the things I would like to do one day is to go the length of the Warrior/Tombigbee on a boat… all the way from Birmingport to the Alabama coast through the locks… through Tuscaloosa, Demopolis, and Mobile Bay…. I would then take the intra-coastal waterway over to the Perdido Pass, and enter the Gulf of Mexico there. I think that would be just way too cool. Maybe one day…
THE ALABAMA STORY: Drier air is working into Alabama from the east today… which means any afternoon showers should be confined to the western part of the state, generally west of I-65, and especially west of U.S. 43. This will not feel like the first full day of the fall season as many communities will peak near 90 degrees today, seven degrees above the average high of 83.
The dry takes over tomorrow, and the entire state should be dry. And, once again, we will be close to 90 tomorrow afternoon. Moisture levels will begin to increase on Wednesday, but any showers should be rather isolated. Thursday is our one opportunity for widespread showers and thunderstorms with a cold front moving through the state with some decent upper air support. At this point, it looks like the average rain total will be around 1/2 inch, so no real drought-buster, but we will take it.
COOLER DAYS: A very nice, refreshing airmass moves in here by Friday and the weekend, with sunny pleasant days and clear cool nights. We should have early morning lows in the mid to upper 50s over the weekend, with afternoon highs up in the low 80s. Looks like great weather for the high school football games Friday night, and the college games in Alabama on Saturday.
LONG RANGE: Still no sign of any super shot of Polar air in here for the next two weeks… the kind of Polar shot that will get us in the 40s. We have to remember, our average low doesn’t drop to 49 until October 20, so it is very early for that anyway. Looks like we will mainly need to keep our eyes to the south… as the tropics heat up…
TROPICAL ACTION: Lets break it down one system at a time….
*A disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico will drift slowly to the west; this will have some potential to become a tropical storm later this week. It would move into Mexico, or, be pulled northward by the same upper trough that will drive a cold front through here on Thursday. We will keep an eye on it, but it should have no impact on Alabama… other than the potential for some moisture from it to be involved with the cold front coming in here on Thursday.
*A system will move through the Windward Islands today will move into the Caribbean tonight; it has the potential to become a tropical storm in coming days; models have it passing just south of Hispanolia and Cuba later in the week. It has some chance to enter the Gulf of Mexico down the line.
*A well organized tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic has the potential to become a tropical storm this week. Too early to determine if this one will recurve into the open Atlantic, or continue to the west/northwest toward the U.S. mainland. We will be watching.
*Tropical storm Jerry is in the North Atlantic, and will become extra-tropical later today or tomorrow and is no threat to land.
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This morning I will be speaking to those playing in the annual Children’s Fund Golf Tournament, sponsored by Wellborn Cabinet. This is a wonderful company in Clay County with a great heart for helping Alabama children… I truly appreciate everything they do for the people of Alabama. I will be back in the office early this afternoon, and the afternoon Weather Xtreme video will be ready by 3:30!
