Chilly Today but Warmer Conditions Ahead

The Sunday edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme Video is available in the player below, and on iTunes…

Brrrr…. A bit nippy out there this morning, as forecast I might add!!! There does not appear to be a great deal of frost with temperatures just below freezing with rather dry air in place. I noticed that the dewpoints were running 14 to 17 degrees, so the air is pretty dry. And it looks like it will be a rather chilly day with the afternoon temperatures only climbing into the upper 40s with a few folks reaching the lower 50s generally south of the Birmingham metro area.

Another cold morning Monday but then temperatures moderate nicely with highs expected to nudge into the lower 60s. One of the nicest characters of Southeastern weather is the fact that the cold weather does not usually last very long. There are some exceptions to that general rule, but just like this event, we only have to endure chilly weather for a couple of days before we begin the warm up.

Very benign weather expected through the upcoming week for Central Alabama. The surface high will gradually migrate eastward through the week together with an upper level ridge. A weak upper trough undercuts the ridge Thursday which means that we might see some clouds, but no rain is expected with that.

Friday changes begin to happen as a trough moves into the Rockies and begins to deepen. That trough moves across the northern tier of the country over the weekend. As it does it will drag a cold front into the Southeast on Saturday, so Saturday could be a wet day. The GFS forecasts that the front will push through the state by Sunday with a slight cool down to occur. This cool down is not as impressive as the cool down we are currently expecting. I do have a concern that the GFS may be pushing the front too far south too quickly until the trough deepens a bit more on Sunday with a disturbance rotating through the trough. But still it does not appear to be a particularly chilling event. And this model run steers my thinking away from any serious severe weather threats.

Trolling out into voodoo land, the pattern remains active as you would expect in the Spring. We should see another string of good weather following the front next weekend. And the longer range predictions indicate the main westerly flow to be well north of Alabama. By 324-hours we may see another pattern with a weak cut-off low over the Southwest US.

If I have the information correct, we will begin Daylight Savings Time next weekend. I understand that Congress changed it to begin earlier than the first Sunday of April and to end later than the last Sunday of October. So next Sunday we’ll be setting our clocks ahead one hour.

After that busy week last week, I’ve got a relatively quiet week ahead with some beach time on my calendar. I certainly hope that everyone has a great Sunday and a great upcoming week. Watch the sky and enjoy. God bless.

-Brian-

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