A Nice Warm-Up Today

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes…

Be sure and scroll down for some amazing shots of the tornado damage down in Prattville.

THE ALABAMA WEATHER SITUATION: Following a sub-freezing start today, we rise into the upper 50s this afternoon with a good supply of sunshine. A very nice late winter day for Alabama. The warming trend continues tomorrow with a high in the mid 60s along with a partly sunny sky.

Wednesday night, a surface front will push into extreme North Alabama, bringing a chance of showers. That front will stall out somewhere over North or Central Alabama Thursday, and periods of rain are likely on Thursday along with the chance of a thunderstorm or two. There could be a pretty sharp temperature gradient statewide on Thursday; Huntsville could see a high only in the mid to upper 40s, while South Alabama will be almost 20 degrees warmer. For the I-20 corridor, we will forecast slightly cooler temperatures on Thursday with a high in the mid to upper 50s.

FRIDAY STORMS: A short wave trough will approach Alabama by Thursday night, then moving through the state Friday. The surface front should move northward a bit in response to the trough, followed by a good round of rain and storms on Friday. The dynamics look a little out of phase with this system, based on the last two runs of the GFS, and there is no strong surface low involved. SPC has limited the severe weather risk to the far southern part of Alabama, and that idea seems good for now.

Look for some good rain with the Thursday/Friday event… the latest QPF guidance shows one to two inches for North Alabama, with two to three inches for the southern half of the state.

OUR WEEKEND: We are now forecasting a clearing sky on Saturday with a high in the 50s. Sunday looks like a partly sunny day with a high back in the 60s.

NEXT WEEK: The GFS continues to advertise a dynamic weather system impacting Alabama late Monday night into Tuesday; this one seems to have severe weather potential, but we need to get the end of the week system out of here before we can really focus on specifics with this one. Bottom line is that our active pattern continue for the foreseeable future.

STORM ALERT 2008: Our annual severe weather awareness tour comes to Clay County Thursday night… we will be at Lineville High School. The doors open at 5:00… show begins at 7:00. We hope to see you there!

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. An all new episode is now available.

SPECIAL ABC 33/40 NOAA WEATHER RADIO OFFER: You can purchase a top of the line Midland NOAA Weather Radio at any Handy TV location in this part of Alabama for only $29.95. These receivers have the new digital technology that allows you to choose the counties for which the alarm sounds. Get more information here.

I am actually off to Clay County this morning to speak to the kids at Lineville Elementary School… I will be back in the office early this afternoon and the afternoon Weather Xtreme video should be posted by 3:30. Enjoy the day!

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