A Near Perfect Late October Midday

JUST AFTER 1:00 PM ACROSS CENTRAL ALABAMA
Temperatures are warming up across the area, currently in the 70s. The cool spots at the moment are Alexander City and Auburn at 70 degrees, while the warm spot is Tuscaloosa at 79 degrees. There are not many clouds out there to filter out any of that bright late October sunshine. Only a few are dotting the skies in the northeastern parts of Central Alabama, and a few down in the southwestern parts.

WHAT A NICE AFTERNOON FOR LATE OCTOBER
We’ll continue to have mainly sunny skies across Central Alabama through the remainder of the afternoon and into the early evening hours. It will be warm with afternoon highs topping out in the mid-70s to the lower 80s from northeast to southwest. Clouds will begin to increase from the southwest during the late night and overnight hours, leaving us with partly to mostly cloudy skies just before sunrise on Wednesday. Overnight lows will be in the mid-50s to the lower 60s.

A FEW SCATTERED SHOWERS POSSIBLE ON HALLOWEEN
Wednesday will be a partly to mostly cloudy day across Central Alabama as we’ll have a cold front approaching from the west. Any isolated to scattered showers that occur during the daylight hours will be over the extreme western parts of the area (mainly west of a line from Demopolis to Tuscaloosa to Jasper). There may be a few claps of thunder, but no active severe weather is expected. Afternoon highs will top out in the upper 70s to the lower 80s.

After sunset, we’ll continue to have a small risk of showers over the extreme western parts of Central Alabama, while the east will be dry with mostly cloudy skies. Temperatures at 7:00 PM will be in the upper 60s to the lower 70s. After the Trick Or Treating is over, heavier rain and thunderstorms will start to move in from the west during the overnight hours. We shouldn’t see any stronger to severe storms until Thursday, but it is the start to the Fall Severe Weather Season, so we’ll have to stay on guard. Lows will be in the 60s.

STRONG TO SEVERE STORMS POSSIBLE ON THURSDAY
Looks like the beginning to November is going to start off on a stormy note as we have the possibility of a few strong to severe storms throughout the entire state. At this point, the Storm Prediction Center has the southern half of the state in a Slight Risk for severe storms, while the northern half is in a Marginal Risk. The main threat will be from damaging straight-line thunderstorm wind gusts, but there is a low-end risk of a tornado or two as well. We’ll have decent instability along with moderate deep-layer shear in place to allow for the possibility of damaging winds to occur in the line of storms, and stronger low-level shear will make it possible for an embedded tornado to form within the line.

Timing on strong to severe storms throughout Central Alabama will be from 5:00 am through 6:00 pm CDT. Breaking it down in zones…
WEST: West of a line from Demopolis to Tuscaloosa to Jasper – 5:00 am to 10:00 am
CENTRAL: West of a line from Autaugaville to Sylacauga to Centre – 9:00 am to 2:00 pm
EAST: East of a line from Autaugaville to Sylacauga to Centre – 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Be sure to have a dependable way of receiving severe weather alerts. Also, be sure that you have your smartphones charged and fresh batteries in your flashlights and your NOAA WeatherRadio. We’ll keep you posted on any changes.

THE TROPICS
Hurricane Oscar has made the turn to the northeast and will be zipping off into the North Atlantic Ocean by Thursday Morning. The rest of the Atlantic Basin is relatively quiet at this point.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS