Summer-ish Weather Pattern

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While the official start to summer is still about a month away – June 21st at 5:51 am – the weather across the Southeast US and Central Alabama is taking on the characteristic look of summer with warm afternoons, mild to warm mornings, and enough moisture that isolated showers driven mainly by the heat of the day could occur any day. I sure hate to see the onset of “20 percent chance of showers each day” but that is the reality of summer-like weather in Central Alabama.

The upper air weather pattern will be dominated by an upper ridge through much of the week ahead. The initial upper air pattern begins with the ridge in place over the eastern half of the country. But that ridge slowly breaks down under the onslaught of a strong short wave and closed low coming out of the Four Corners area of the Southwest US. The ridge breaks down by Wednesday and Thursday as the trough inches eastward but weakens at the same time.

The ridge then builds back into the Central US ahead of another strong trough advancing eastward onto the West Coast. And this sets us up once again for a continuation of the summer-like pattern with daily shower chances. In the absence of any air mass change, temperatures are likely to remain fairly steady with highs dancing around the 90-degree mark while lows dip back overnight generally into the 60s. And any showers that do occur will be isolated to scattered with perhaps a slightly better chance of rain later in the week ahead as moisture levels gradually climb.

GULF COAST WEATHER: Sunny days, fair nights through Memorial Day. Highs on the immediate coast in the lower 80s but close to 90 degrees inland. Sea water temperatures are now in the 77-81 degree range from Panama City over to Gulf Shores.

EASTERN PACIFIC: The first tropical storm of the season in the East Pacific, called Amanda, formed yesterday well west of the Mexican coast. It is expected to become a hurricane soon, but it is no threat to land as it churns in the Eastern Pacific. The Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1 while the East Pacific season started May 15.

Not much sign of any major pattern changes looking out into Week 2 or voodoo country.

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I expect to have the next Weather Xtreme Video posted first thing on Sunday morning. You can catch the latest weather forecast on ABC 3340 News at 6 and 10 pm today. Enjoy the day and Godspeed.

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather