Gorgeous Weekend Weather!

A clear sky covers all of the Southeast US this morning with sunrise temperatures generally around the 50-degree mark. A cold front was poised to move into and across Central Alabama later today, but thanks to a very dry atmosphere, there will be no showers or storms accompanying the front, just a few clouds. Highs today should reach the middle and upper 70s across the northern half of Alabama.

Looking to the other side of the world, Tropical Cyclone 21 was roaming south of the equator in the Indian Ocean. It is forecast to become a hurricane by the 29th before gradually weakening after the first of May.

The weather could not get much better this weekend for the races at Talladega. The weekend forecast is for sunshine with highs in the middle 70s today and near 70 on Sunday for the Geico 500.

The upper flow tonight and Sunday will become northwesterly, so look for a chilly morning Sunday morning with morning lows in the 40s. It is possible that some of the normally colder, sheltered locations may dip into the upper 30s, but I do not expect to see frost. The latest Spring freezing temperature recorded at the Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport occurred on April 26, 1986.

By Monday, an upper ridge becomes established over the eastern half of the country and that upper ridge basically stays put until Friday. At the surface, a large high pressure system will move across the Southeast US through the week. This will essentially keep us warm and dry for the work week ahead with highs reaching the lower half of the 80s through Friday. The QPF graphic below shows the absence of rain for the next five days.

Friday into Saturday, a strong upper trough will slide across Canada dampening the ridge over the eastern portion of the country. At the surface, a cold front will be dragged into the Southeast US Friday afternoon, but thanks to the front becoming parallel to the upper flow, it is likely to stall out across the area on Saturday bringing a chance for showers into the forecast that will probably remain with us into Sunday.

Looking into voodoo country, the GFS has a rather interesting upper air pattern that will spell a good deal of wet weather for the Southeast US if it verifies. An upper trough moves into the Oklahoma Panhandle around the 7th of May and closes off as a closed low over Northeast Texas by the 9th of May. It becomes detached from the westerlies and slowly moves eastward into East Tennessee by the 13th of May. So we could be looking at an extended period of unsettled weather for Alabama.

Beach Forecasts: Click here to see the AlabamaWx Beach Forecast Center page.

WeatherBrains: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 90 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40.

Thanks for tuning into the Weather Xtreme Video. I plan to have the next edition posted by 7 am or so on Sunday. ABC 3340 is participating in the Celebrate Hoover event at Veteran’s Park on Valleydale Road today. I’ll be helping to staff the ABC 3340 table from 1 to 3 pm, so if you have plans to be there, be sure to drop by and say hello. And special thanks to Bill Murray for handling the videos last weekend, so I could provide weather support to the 2018 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Enjoy this beautiful weekend and Godspeed.

-Brian-

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