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J.B. will compile one of his famous long rain total lists and post that a little later this morning. Our total at the ABC 33/40 Weather Office in Riverchase was 1.01″… our downtown Birmingham SKYCAM also went a little over one inch. More than we expected, and nobody is complaining. We had a few marginally severe storms over the far western side of the state, but it was generally a good rain event with few problems. I was very surprised that SPC issued the tornado watch; they might have been spooked by the history of the system and the really rough weather that took place over Arkansas and Missouri.
LOOKING AHEAD: The surface boundary is stalled around Montgomery this morning, and accordingly any showers during the day today should be south of U.S. 80. That boundary will work northward tonight, so showers will be possible statewide.
Tomorrow looks like an active convective day. Looks like surface based CAPE values will rise into the 500 to 1000 j/kg category (there was hardly any surface based CAPE last night), the low level jet will be close to 50 knots, and a good, negative tilt trough at 500 mb will set the stage for the chance of severe thunderstorms. SPC has all of Alabama in a slight risk, and we will need to keep our eye on the situation closely.
On the positive side, one to two inches of rain are likely tomorrow, which combined with last night’s rain will really help the soil moisture situation.
COOLER DAYS: After the rain and storms tomorrow, temperatures return to average values Friday and Saturday with highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s. The 06Z run of the GFS continues the idea of keeping the Sunday storm in the Northeast Gulf of Mexico far enough to the south not to impact our weather, but other models have different ideas, (the Canadian is much more aggressive with the system and farther north) and we will maintain the risk of some light rain here Sunday afternoon. A few snow flakes Sunday night are not out of the question… lets get through tomorrow’s event and we can focus on Sunday.
VOODOO COUNTRY: The GFS sure looks cold in the January 17-24 time frame. It hints at a true Arctic blast, with some mischief around the base of the eastern U.S. upper trough. I think we can forget the idea of any more spring-like warmth this month. Think cold.
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Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 3:30 or so this afternoon… enjoy the day!
