**For the next four days, the Weather Xtreme video will be replaced by the daily weather briefing by students here at the National Weather Association annual meeting at the Wynfrey in Hoover. These college students work hard on briefing the hundreds of meteorologists here on weather each morning, and it is a great chance for them to get some exposure. And, we thought that exposure could be amplified by using their presentation here on the Alabamawx.com blog. The briefings are done live around 7:30… and we will have posted shortly after that here**
COLD FRONT ON THE WAY: Before we experience the coolest air so far this season, today will be mostly sunny and very warm for mid-October with a high in the mid 80s. Then, clouds increase tomorrow ahead of the front, and we will mention a chance of showers and thunderstorms late tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night, ending early Wednesday morning (probably in the pre-dawn hours).
Severe weather is not expected, and rain should be generally one-half inch or less. The main window for showers and storms will be from about 5:00 p.m. tomorrow through 6:00 a.m. Wednesday.
RINA IS FORMING? To the south, the disturbance near the Yucatan Channel is better organized, and could become a tropical depression today as it begins to move northeast. Perhaps this will be Tropical Storm Rina over the next 48 hours; the system will move over the Florida Peninsula, well south of Alabama, on the journey northeast along our advancing front front. It will really be more of a hybrid system as it interacts with the mid-latidude westerlies.
BIG CHILL: Wednesday will be a different kind of day for sure. Temperatures will struggle to reach the mid to upper 50s with a chilly north wind. Clouds could hang tough much of the day, but we will be optimistic for now and forecast clearing by afternoon.
The GFS is advertising lows in the 34-39 degree range both Thursday and Friday morning, with highs only in the low 60s on these days despite maximum available sunshine. Winds could still be an issue early Thursday, but Friday should be a morning with light to calm winds, and frost is likely for much of North Alabama, along with a light freeze for the coldest valleys. Growers will need to be aware of that and plan accordingly as we get close to the end of the 2011 growing season.
WEEKEND PEEK: Looks fantastic; bright sunny weather is the story Saturday and Sunday with only a slow warming trend. Looks like mid 60s Saturday, and upper 60s Sunday. Great for NASCAR fans coming into Talladega for race weekend, and for football fans as well.
WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 90 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. We have a live stream set up at the National Weather Association annual meeting; we will stream a special pep rally event tonight featuring myself and Bill “Bubba” Bussey of the Rick and Bubba show, along with the Hoover High School band and the University of Alabama cheerleaders along with over 600 weather geeks from around the world. We will do a special live show after that, around 8:00. See the stream here.
CONNECT: You can find me on all of the major social networks…
We will do our best to keep the usually weather product cycle on time, but there would be a few delays as we are engulfed here at the NWA annual meeting in Birmingham. I am back in the “war room” where the program committee is working to keep everything here running smoothly… I am honored to serve along with Jim Stefkovich and Mark Rose of the Birmingham NWS, and our own Bill Murray of the Weather Company.
I will try and have the daily video weather briefing posted by 8:00 a.m.; the next discussion will be posted by 3:30 or so this afternoon. Enjoy the day!
