A few showers were starting to form in isolated locations across the northern half of Alabama this afternoon.
Skies are partly cloudy, with the cumulus clouds showing some decent vertical development, meaning isolated showers are about to form. Some of them will go on to become storms.
At 12:45 p.m., showers were located in the following spots from west to east…
…along I-59 in Sumter, Greene and SW Tuscaloosa County
…just southwest of Lawley in Bibb County
…between Chelsea and Columbiana in Shelby County (this one shows some promise of becoming a storm soon)
…a light shower between Trussville and Moody on the Jefferson/St. Clair County line
…on the Cullman/Morgan County line near Baileyton
…in Jackson County west of Skyline and Hytop
Movement appears to be southeast.
It appears the best moisture field is east of I-65 between I-20 and I-85, so East Central Alabama may be a favored location for development this afternoon. But as the radar shows, isolated storms could form just about anywhere with the intense heating.
If you are lucky enough to see one of the storms, expect some brief heavy rains that could amount to an inch quickly. There will also be deadly lightning and the threat of some damaging downburst winds.
At noon, temperatures wre in the middle 90s. It was 95F at the Birmingham Airport, 93F in Gadsden, 94F in Anniston, 94F at Calera and 93F at Tuscaloosa.
A look at the mornigng run of the GFS is consistent with previous runs in keeping Alabama hot and dry for the foreseeable future. A big bubble of an upper level high parks over us by the middle of next week, leading to some very hot temperatures, likelyhotter than we are seeing now.
