Another Scorcher

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Looks like it is going to be another scorcher for Central Alabama with highs around 104 and heat indices in the range from 110 to 115 as humidity levels rise just a bit. But there is also some hope for a more typical summer-like pattern with scattered showers for the upcoming week. We saw a few showers, three at one point, yesterday afternoon in West Central Alabama in the vicinity of Livingston and Meridian. But for today, chances for showers are very small with more record heat possible.

Surface high pressure along with the upper ridge are keeping us hot. While there is not spectacular change in the overall weather pattern, there is a slight reduction in the strength of ridge which together with the slight uptick in humidity should lead to at least some daily chances for showers and thunderstorms across Central Alabama. But coverage will still not be large and many of us remain dry. The lowering of thickness values together with more clouds should help to alleviate the extreme heat and bring highs by mid week back into the middle 90s.

Over the next couple of days, the lapse rates over Central Alabama are fairly steep and unstable. The sounding at the Shelby County airport last night showed a CAPE value of 1899, so any storms that do develop hold the potential for producing damaging wind gusts.

The upper ridge shifts slightly westward on Tuesday and Wednesday with a weak short wave moving across the Southeast US. This should help to produce at least scattered showers with a weak boundary in the area. While still exerting an influence, the ridge continues to dampen ever so slightly through the end of the week keeping us in a scattered shower pattern with another weak boundary possibly coming into the area by next Sunday.

SPC maintains a slight risk of severe thunderstorms from Iowa into the Carolina coast for today and in nearly the same area on Monday along the northern periphery of the ridge. And the tropics have gone quiet once again with no development expected for the next 48 hours.

Looking into voodoo country, the GFS presents with a very nice coolish look to the pattern on July 10th with a very deep trough over the East Coast, especially considering that it is July. But as you might expect to see, the upper ridge builds back by the middle of the month.

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Thanks for staying tuned to the Weather Xtreme Video. James Spann should be back with the next edition on Monday morning. Stay with the Blog for updates on the weather. Have a great Sunday and Godspeed.

-Brian-