The Friday edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme Video is available in the player below, and on iTunes:
Still looking at an interesting weather situation for this weekend with some potential for severe storms although today that potential would seem to be a further south. In the meantime today, though, Central Alabama will see a mixture of clouds with a few peeks of the sun from time to time and the really mild weather returns for two more days. Looks to me like we’ll be well into the 60s for highs today and Saturday with the overnight low tonight only dropping back into the lower half of the 50s. We might even see the mercury threaten 70 degrees on Saturday.
My perception of December is a month of contrasts but also a month dominated by mild weather. I have not looked closely at the figures for what our monthly average will be, but it sure seems like we’ve had a bunch of mild days with only one substantial cold spell earlier in the month. Around the 8th we only managed a high of 40 degrees. Gives me a chill just thinking about it.
So mild for the next two days as a strong upper low comes out of the Southern Rockies. The surface low will track north-northeastward and drag a cold front into Central Alabama on Sunday morning. The latest GFS model run now shows our greatest rain chances coming Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The rain should be in the form of thunderstorms with a line of storm moving through Central Alabama during the first half of Sunday. The risk for severe weather here seems to be dminishing a bit due to less favorable timing of the front – nighttime hours as opposed to midday hours and maximum heating. Also the lapse rates, that is, the change of temperature with height, will be less so the amount of destabilization of the atmosphere is less. Still some storms may be strong and there is still a severe weather threat close to the Gulf Coast.
After the front passes on Sunday, we see a cool down but nothing extreme with the air mass more Pacific than polar. We also dry out with dry weather expected for the first three days of the New Year.
Our next shot at rain comes in the late Wednesday and Thursday time frame with a surface low in the northwest Gulf of Mexico and a good soaking event for us. But temperatures remain slightly above seasonal values for early January – lows around 32 and highs around 52.
Trolling out into the longer range – sometimes referred to as voodoo land – we see a continuation of the progressive pattern with a series of storms every three to four days. Another four corners upper low looms on the charts around January 13th.
Be sure to catch John Oldshue this evening and over the weekend for the latest information. I’ll be back tomorrow morning with another Weather Xtreme Video. Have a great Friday and enjoy the upcoming weekend.
-Brian-
