Your Sunday Weather Briefing: Showers, Mild, then Colder

Well, the Perseids meteor shower was a disappointment for us here in Alabama due to the clouds, but most of did get a brief glimpse of the full moon before the sky went cloudy during the evening. Clouds will be with us much of today as a disturbance passes to our north. Highs will be in the 50s North to lower and middle 60s across Central Alabama. Lows tonight will be in the 50s, except for upper 40s east.

THE WEEK AHEAD: The new work week will start off with weak ridging across Alabama and the Deep South. This will mean warmer than normal temperatures that are quite pleasant for this time of year. Highs Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be in the upper 60s to lower 70s. Lows each morning will be in the 50s. Monday will feature increasing sunshine, helping with the mild temperatures. As a disturbance passes through the Great Lakes, a frontal system will try to make entrance into Northwest Alabama, bringing showers into the state overnight, although the day will be dry. A few showers will be possible through the day on Tuesday, but rainfall amounts will be fairly light. A much more powerful system will move through the Great Lakes on Wednesday, giving the frontal system the momentum it needs to move through Alabama. That will happen through the day and overnight, with high rain chances for the northern half of Alabama.

A SHARP TURN TO COLDER: Skies will clear on Thursday morning even as the front dies out in the I-20 Corridor. After morning lows in the upper 30s and 40s, highs on Thursday will be in the upper 40s and lower 50s. Friday will be cold, with lower in the 20s and 30s, and lows in the lower 50s. The weekend will be sunny but chilly, with highs hovering around 50F and lows in the 20s mainly.

VOODOO TERRITORY: Christmas week looks active, with a serious of troughs bringing lots of wet weather to Alabama and the south. For now, Christmas Eve looks dry, but it appears there may be a few showers on Christmas Day. Temperatures look mild.

LIFE’S A BEACH: And if you’re heading to the beautiful beaches of Alabama and Northwest Florida, the week ahead will be fairly nice. 70s will be common through Thursday, falling back into the 60s Thursday and Friday. Temperatures over the weekend will fall back into the 50s before slowly rising the week of Christmas. Water temperatures are in the lower 60s. The rip current risk will be in the moderate range through midweek.

DANCING WITH THE STATS: 2.41 inches of rain at Mount Shasta City, California on Friday established a new record for December 13th. The old record was 2.0 inches.

WEATHERBRAINS: This Monday night, the team will enjoy a nice homegrown weather roundtable show with just a panel discussion led by James Aydelott. Those are always some of the best shows! Check out the show at www.WeatherBrains.com. You can also subscribe on iTunes. You can watch the show live on our new YouTube channel for the show and you can see the live show on the James Spann 24×7 weather channel on cable or directly over the air on the dot 2 feed.

ON THIS DATE IN 1906: The third week of December in 1906 was a cold one in Birmingham, as record lows that still stand today were recorded on 6 of the 7 days between the 15th and 21st. It is tied for ninth place in the pantheon of coldest six day average minimum temperature at 11.0F. If the 24F on December 19, 1901 had been colder, the span would have ranked higher on the list. The coldest six day period in Magic City history happened in 1899, when the average low was 7.5F over a similar span from February 8-14. Follow my weather history tweets on Twitter. I am @wxhistorian at Twitter.com.

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