Interesting Week Ahead

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YEAR’S WORTH OF RAIN IN ABOUT 9 MONTHS: The rainfall total for the year at the Birmingham Airport is now 54.05 inches. This is about what our average rainfall for one year is. So we did it in 277 days!

Some rain totals during the past 24 hours…

Coker 2.46″
Millport 2.29″
Gadsden 1.85″
Tuscaloosa 1.81″ (a daily rain record for October 4)
Birmingham Airport 1.70″
Helena 1.62″
Pleasant Grove 1.62″
Greystone Cove 1.54″

OCCASIONALLY WET THIS WEEK: Lots of fast paced weather changes this week… let’s take it one day at a time…

TODAY: Rain will move out of Alabama early this morning, and we should be generally dry from mid-morning through tonight. Clouds will linger, with a few intervals of sunshine possible this afternoon. The high today should be in the mid 60s, but warmer air is not far away below a warm front just south of us.

TOMORROW: The day will be much warmer, with highs well up in the 70s as the warm front moves north of us. There will be sufficient moisture for a few showers and possibly a thunderstorm, but they should be pretty widely spaced, and mostly during the afternoon.

WEDNESDAY: A surface boundary approaches, and the day looks rather wet with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Won’t rain all day, but it should rain for at least 2 hours or so.

THURSDAY AND FRIDAY: The weather will be more summer-like on these days as a warm 5940 meter ridge (at 500 mb) over Florida expands up into Alabama. Highs will be in the low 80s, over 10 degrees above average for early October. Thursday looks mostly dry with a partly sunny sky, but scattered showers or storms could show up by Friday afternoon as the air becomes more unstable, and a surface front approaches from the north.

THE WEEKEND: Unfortunately things are looking a bit wet for now; the front moves into North Alabama and stalls out as it becomes parallel to the upper air winds. So, there will be a good chance of showers and storms both Saturday and Sunday with a high in the low 70s. We will try and fine tune the timing as we get closer to the weekend.

VOODOO LAND: Very cold air moves down into the northern states later this week, but the upper air winds won’t allow it southward into the Deep South. No sign of getting into the 30s here through mid-month.

TROPICS: NHC has identified the storm in the Northeast Atlantic as Tropical Storm Grace. I am not really sure this is a true tropical storm; not sure what determines if these things get a name when they are really a hybrid. One way or another it is no threat to the U.S. or any other landmass. Another wave is out in the Central Atlantic and has some chance of slow development in coming days; it is about halfway between the Lesser Antilles and the coast of Africa. See them on the Weather Xtreme video.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 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. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left. We will record a few show tonight; it will be posted by 11:00 p.m.

FOLLOW ALONG: Here are our weather team Twitter accounts….

I am off on a field trip today with a bunch of 7th graders… I will return early in the afternoon and the next Weather Xtreme video should be posted here by 3:30 or so. Enjoy the day!

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