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HOT, HUMID, SCATTERED STORMS: I must admit sometimes we get a little tired of saying the same thing everything during the months of July and August in Alabama. Actually, the weather does change a bit every day, but those changes are very subtle and hard to identify far in advance. Little differences in temperatures aloft, lapse rates, moisture levels, and the location of small scale boundaries are what you have to look for, and they usually don’t show up on the standard synoptic scale maps we show here. You can pretty much be assured that our weather will be hot and humid this time of the year, and somebody somewhere will be dealing with a thunderstorm.
RIGHT NOW: The strongest storms in the state are up north over the Tennessee Valley, where the NWS in Huntsville has issued a few severe thunderstorm warnings this afternoon. Some communities up in Limestone, Madison, and Jackson Counties have seen heavy rain this afternoon. Down this way, the storms are very few and far between, but don’t be surprised if storms blossom later this evening as the air is pretty unstable, and the cap can be broken. Temperatures at 2:00 include 96 in Birmingham, 95 at Tuscaloosa, 92 in Anniston, and 91 in Gadsden. Any storms that do form around here this evening could pack a punch with gobs of lightning and potential for wet microbursts.
REST OF THE WEEK: The upper ridge gets a little stronger on Wednesday and Thursday, so we might creep up into the upper 90s on these days with fewer afternoon storms. Then an upper trough over the Northeast U.S. beats the ridge down slightly Friday.
THE WEEKEND: We will roll with a persistence forecast Saturday and Sunday; hot and humid days with a few afternoon showers and storms in scattered spots. Highs in the low to mid 90s. And, quite frankly there is no reason to change that outlook early next week at this point.
TROPICS: All is quiet for now across the vast Atlantic basin.
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