Becoming significantly colder this weekend

Tonight, will be clear and cooler with lows in the upper 40s to mid 50s.

Nicole will move toward Florida’s east coast on Wednesday and become a hurricane. This will help to draw down a backdoor cold front (a front that moves in from the northeast) to Alabama. This will lead to much cooler and less humid northerly winds across Central Alabama with plenty of sunshine and highs in the lower 70s.

Nicole will move over Florida on Thursday and Friday. This will spread heavy rain there, and we will see plenty of clouds across Alabama with some showers over Eastern Alabama late on Thursday into Friday. The rain will be limited thanks to a ridge of high pressure spread across the Northeast U.S. Both days will be breezy. It will be unseasonably warm with highs in the lower to mid 70s.

Weekend Outlook: BIG changes come to our temperatures this weekend. A trough of low pressure will move east across the U.S. on Friday. This will prevent Nicole from moving into Alabama. The trough will also send a strong cold front across Alabama by Saturday morning. It will not have any moisture associated with it, so we will be mostly sunny and windy. It will be MUCH COLDER with highs only in the mid to upper 50s. Saturday night will be clear and cold with lows in the 20s and 30s. Sunday will be gorgeous as an area of high pressure builds toward Alabama from the northwest. We will be sunny and chilly with highs only in the lower 50s. Sunday night will be clear, cold and frosty with a light freeze. Lows will be in the upper 20s to lower 30s.

Tracking the Tropics: Nicole is getting better organized and is now a tropical storm. It will move WSW then turn NW toward Florida as it gets stronger on Wednesday and Thursday. It will be a hurricane by landfall early Thursday morning on the east coast of Florida near Cape Canaveral. It is forecast to cross Central Florida and remain north of Tampa. A strong cold front and trough of low pressure will deflect Nicole NE over North Florida/Georgia to the U.S. East Coast Friday and Saturday. This system will not have a direct impact on Alabama, but we will see some clouds and a few showers over Eastern Alabama Thursday and Friday. This will be a mess for the U.S. East Coast this weekend with heavy rain, flooding and coastal flooding.