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Nice to actually something on our radar this afternoon. Of course, those showers are not in Alabama, but we do see some light rain over Northeast and Central Mississippi. Those showers are in advance of the old upper low that has been over Texas for the past few days. It continues to weaken, and is slowly drifting to the northeast as a new upper low spins up over the Southwest U.S.
Around Alabama right now we have a a partly sunny sky with temperatures mostly in the low 80s; Birmingham is reporting 80 at 1:00 p.m.; a little cooler than at this time yesterday thanks to an increased cloud cover.
TOMORROW/FRIDAY: We will introduce the risk of a few showers tomorrow and Friday, but don’t get our hopes up for beneficial rain. The showers will be widely scattered on both days, and will come mostly during the afternoon hours. We expect a high in the mid 80s tomorrow, with low 80s on Friday. Despite the increasing moisture, we just don’t have a major trigger for rain.
THE WEEKEND: There should be a general increase in the number of scattered showers and storms on Saturday, but once again it won’t rain all day, and rain distribution won’t be very even. But, at least a few neighborhoods will see a decent shower or two. Sunday will also feature some sun at times along with a chance of scattered, mainly afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms.
LONG RANGE: No real change in the 12Z GFS; the primary band of westerlies will remain up north, near the Canadian border. This will keep the big rain producing systems away from here, so we will have rely on the afternoon showers and storms for relief from the dry conditions. There is some hint of a weakening surface front moving in here around May 10-12 that might enhance the coverage of scattered showers and storms.
WEST ALABAMA TRAIN DERAILMENT: Six people have been injured in a West Alabama train derailment… the train was carrying solid rocket boosters used by the Space Shuttle; they were en route to Florida was Utah. The derailment is near Pennington; which is on the Tombigbee River between Linden and Butler, on the Marengo/Choctaw County line. Bill Castle is there now in our helicopter, AirLink 33/40… you can see the full report on ABC 33/40 News at 5:00…
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I enjoyed speaking to the graduating seniors at Chelsea High School this afternoon at the annual senior lunch…I wish them all well as they leave the security of high school and head off into the world. I will have the next Weather Xtreme video posted by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!
