An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes…
Ahhh… the ole dog days of summer. I have never know exactly when the “dog days” are… although most people in Alabama hold off until August before using the term.
Whatever, we are going to be locked into a classic mid-summer pattern for the foreseeable future. The biggest forecast issue is the coverage and intensity of afternoon showers and storms, and that is determined by small scale features you won’t see on the GFS or other synoptic scale models. And even with knowledge of mesoscale features, it is impossible to tell you exactly when and where it will rain on a summer afternoon.
We do discuss some interesting new satellite forecast methods developed at UAH that might help us with summer convection on the new WeatherBrains that was just released last night.
BOTTOM LINE: Hot and humid with scattered, mainly afternoon and evening thunderstorms through the weekend, and into next week. The models are little more moist today, but the best coverage of scattered showers and storms will probably come later in the week, on Thursday and Friday, with a surface boundary stalling out just north of here.
Over the weekend, the GFS has shifted the core of the upper ridge west of Alabama a bit, so the weather here probably won’t change all that much.
Afternoon highs should be in the low 90s, although they will dip into the upper 80s on the days that are more active convectively.
BERTHA: See the Weather Xtreme video for the graphics… the NHC track has Bertha east of Bermuda this weekend as a minimal hurricane. Looks like it might sit out there for a few days before being swept out to sea… the risk to the U.S. mainland at this time looks minimal, and it certainly won’t be a Gulf of Mexico system.
WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 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. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left. Scroll down for note on the new show posted last night.
TWITTER: Don’t forget, you can follow our news and weather updates from ABC 33/40 on Twitter here. And, my personal Twitter feed is here if you want to keep up with my adventures in life. Twitter is a short messaging service you can receive via the web, cell phone, or IM.
Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 3:30 this afternoon… enjoy the day!
