Summer-ish Warmth Continues

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After a summer that was somewhat coolish, it appears that the warmth of late August is going to extend well into September. We start the day off in the lower 70s this morning with a little patchy fog around. But the sounding continued to show dry air in place across much of Alabama. The frontal boundary that has been lying along the Gulf coast continues to weaken and wash out as the dew point contrast becomes hard to find.

The upper air pattern continued to show a large upper ridge to our west nosing in just enough to keep us dry throughout the weekend. In fact, the upper ridge is being forecast to get nudged eastward during the upcoming week, so while we see isolated showers a possibility driven by daytime heating, we stay basically dry as most of us will probably not see much rain during the next seven days. The ridge does weaken at mid-week with a strong trough moving through the Great Lakes area, however, that trough shows little southward extent until Friday when another weak front is likely to come into North Alabama. The problem will be finding some moisture for the front to work with, so I do not expect to see much more than scattered showers. The GFS does hint at a wedge-like pattern next Saturday which would bring our temperatures down a bit.

But for the foreseeable future, it looks like highs in the 88 to 92 range in the week ahead with only small chance for daily showers. Lows generally will be in and around the 70 degree mark.

The tropics have become busy with several areas under the watchful eye of NHC. None of the areas appear likely to develop into tropical storms for the next 2 to 5 days. Interesting that we are now in the climatological peak of the Atlantic hurricane season and we have yet to see a hurricane even though the next named system will start with “H.”

Auburn will host Arkansas State for a 6:30 pm kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The sky will be mostly clear; 84 degrees at kickoff, falling into the upper 70s by the fourth quarter. UAB will travel to Baton Rouge to take on LSU; the game kicks off at 6:00 pm CT. Just a slight risk of a shower or storm during the first half, otherwise mostly fair. About 88 degrees at kickoff; 80 by the final whistle.

Last weekend I was hopeful for a good cold front to provide us with a hint of Fall. But now it looks like we will have to wait until around September 20th for a good sweeping cold front to bring an air mass change to the Southeast US.

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I plan to have at least an abbreviated video by 8 am or so on Sunday morning. I will be helping to emcee the Ride for Kids at Barber Motorsports Park, so I will need to be heading out there fairly early. I hope you have a good day and Godspeed.

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather