Air Quality Remains Poor

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Our weather will not change much today. Once again, we have a “code orange” ozone alert for the Birmingham metro, meaning air quality is expected to be “unhealthy for sensitive groups”; those groups include people with respiratory problems and asthma. Smoke from the fires in Southeast Georgia continue to blow in here on low level southeast winds. Otherwise, the day will be partly to mostly sunny with a high in the upper 80s.

RAIN AHEAD? Lots of model madness concerning our weather for the end of the week and the weekend. The GFS waffles from run to run, and does agree with the European at all. Whats a forecaster to do? Just stay the course.

We will begin to mention a risk of widely scattered afternoon showers or storms on Thursday and Friday, with the best chance coming over the western half of the state. Then, as a significant upper trough approaches from the west we will forecast a good chance of a few passing showers or storms on Saturday. Then, by Sunday, the best chance of showers and storms will be shifting down into South Alabama.

Needless to say, this could change with the low confidence due to the model madness, but I think that is the best forecast for now. Rainfall amounts of one inch seem likely between Thursday and Saturday, with local areas possibly getting up to two inches from the stronger storms.

LONG RANGE: Seems like we might have a chance of scattered afternoon showers and storms on a number of days next week. No drought buster, but it sure beats nothing. The rain deficiency for Birmingham has grown to 14.42 inches.

I should mention the tropics continue to look rather nervous in coming weeks; at some point I would not be surprised if a tropical system formed in the Southeast Gulf of Mexico, or the Atlantic, somewhere east of Florida.

Be sure and scroll down to read Bill Murray’s stories on the May 27, 1973 tornado event in Alabama. I will post some thoughts on that event here tonight.

WEATHER PARTY: Get all the latest weather news over on our sister site, WeatherParty.com. Be sure and register while you are there; you can submit stories and vote on them to determine what is published on the front page.

We are on a holiday schedule today; this will be the only discussion/video for today here on the blog (I will be covering the regular TV shift tonight on ABC 33/40). We get back to the regular schedule tomorrow… have a wonderful Memorial Day!

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