Weather Aware Thursday

THURSDAY: We start out the morning dry, but strong storms develop over the Tennessee Valley by mid-morning, and begin to dive southward into Central Alabama around lunch-time. As storms move south, the atmosphere will be unstable enough to support strong updrafts that could give storms enough energy to produce damaging winds of 45-60 mph.

Strong instability ahead of afternoon storms Thursday

Additionally, some small hail, frequent lightning, and locally heavy rain are also possible. Isolated flash flooding could occur in any spots with training thunderstorms. Highs reach the low 90s before storms knock temperatures down in the late afternoon and evening. There remains some question as to how the atmosphere responds Thursday evening and overnight, with some hints of lingering thunderstorms. For now, I’m going with a relatively calm evening, but we will have to monitor how things unfold past the initial wave of storms Thursday.

FRIDAY & THE WEEKEND: Scattered storms remain likely Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There remains a bit too much uncertainty in the exact timing and intensity of storms Friday and into the weekend to have those days under a Weather Aware, but we will continue to monitor closely. It’s certainly possible some storms could be strong to severe, as is often the case with summertime storms. Highs will remain in the low to mid 90s, and if the rain holds off until the heat of the afternoon builds in, the heat index will likely climb between 105-110°.

NEXT WEEK: Hot and humid weather continues with daily scattered showers and storms. Standard August weather is expected, with highs in the low 90s and a heat index in the low 100s. Locally heavy rainfall could begin to pile up in some communities, particularly northeast of Birmingham. Isolated 7 day rainfall totals over 4″ are possible. Depending on how quickly the heaviest rain falls, and where, some flooding issues can’t be ruled out to kick off next week.