Hot, Summer-Like Weather Ahead For Alabama

BRING ON THE HEAT: A strong upper high will remain anchored over the eastern third of the nation, and will keep Alabama dry through the weekend and most of next week with rising heat levels. Today look for a partly to mostly sunny sky with a high between 83 and 88 degrees. A tight pressure gradient will make for another windy day… southwest winds will gust to 25/30 mph at times.

We are forecasting mostly sunny days and fair nights tomorrow through the weekend; the high tomorrow will be in the upper 80s for most places, and temperatures will hit the 90 degree mark Saturday for the first time this year. Sunday’s high will be in the 90-94 degree range.

NEXT WEEK: Temperatures will be close to record levels Monday through Wednesday with highs in the mid 90s. Heat levels slowly back down toward the end of the week as the ridge shifts westward; the week will be dry with just some risk of isolated showers on Friday (May 28). See the Weather Xtreme video for maps, graphics, and more details.

TROPICS: A non-tropical low pressure system has developed within a broad area of cloudiness and thunderstorms about 600 miles east-southeast of Bermuda. The low is expected to develop gale-force winds later today while it moves generally northward. The low is forecast to move westward and southwestward over warmer waters tomorrow, and will likely become a short-lived subtropical cyclone near and to the northeast of Bermuda. The system is expected to move toward the north and northeast into a more hostile environment by late Sunday into Monday. No threat to any land area; if this system is designated a subtropical storm, the name will be “Ana”.

ON THIS DATE IN 1957: A tornado touched down to the southwest of Kansas City and traveled a distance of seventy-one miles cutting a swath of near destruction through the southeastern suburbs of Ruskin Heights and Hickman Mills. The tornado claimed the lives of forty-five persons and left hundreds homeless. It was the worst weather disaster on record for Kansas City. About all that remained of one house were a small table and a fishbowl atop, with the fish still swimming about inside the bowl. A canceled check from Hickman Hills was found in Ottumwa, Iowa, 165 miles away. Pilots reported debris at an altitude of 30,000 feet.

ON THIS DATE IN 2013: A large and extremely powerful EF-5 tornado ravaged Moore, Oklahoma, and adjacent areas, with peak winds estimated at 210 mph, killing 24 people and injuring 212 others. The tornado was part of a larger weather system that had produced several other tornadoes across the Great Plains over the previous two days, including five that struck portions of Central Oklahoma the day prior on May 19. There has not been an EF-5 tornado in the U.S. since this event.

The tornado touched down just northwest of Newcastle at 2:56 p.m. CDT (19:46 UTC), and stayed on the ground for 37 minutes over a 17-mile (27 km) path, crossing through a heavily populated section of Moore. The tornado was 1.08 miles (1.74 km) wide at its peak.[5] It followed a roughly similar track to the deadlier 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado, which was smaller in size but just as severe; however, very few homes and neither of the stricken schools in the area had purpose-built storm shelters in the intervening years since the earlier tornado struck Moore.[6]

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

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 90 minute show anytime on your favorite podcast app. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40.

CONNECT: You can find me on all of the major social networks…

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 3:00 this afternoon… enjoy the day!

Tags: ANC, featured, windy

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS, Weather Xtreme Videos