James Spann: Drier air slowly works its way into Alabama from the north
Navarre Beach early this morning. It should be a pretty standard summer day at the beaches of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. (Cindi Glenn)
James Spann: North Alabama gets a break from humidity, starting today from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
QUIET WEATHER: Dewpoints will slowly drop over the northern half of Alabama over the next 24 hours, meaning the air will be drier and more stable. Accordingly, we expect most of the scattered showers and storms to come over the southern half of the state each day through Friday.
Understand the chance of a shower over North Alabama is not zero, but the chance of any one spot seeing rain is so small we won’t mention it in the forecast. Days will be partly to mostly sunny, nights mostly fair. The high today and tomorrow will be close to 90, with low 90s Friday afternoon.
Down across South Alabama, showers and storms are possible, but they will be pretty widely spaced.
FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND: Moisture levels will slowly rise, and we will mention the chance of widely scattered, mostly afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms Saturday and Sunday. Otherwise, partly sunny, hot, humid weather will be the story with highs in the 92- to 95-degree range. We do expect to see an increase in the coverage of scattered showers and storms Monday as a surface front approaches from the north. Still, Monday won’t be a “washout”.
Then, the rest of next week looks like we will deal with very routine summer weather: partly sunny days with the risk of afternoon/evening storms in scattered spots.
TROPICS: The Atlantic basin remains quiet, and tropical storm formation is not expected through the holiday weekend.
Interesting to note the Northern Hemisphere has been hurricane-free since Jan. 16, the second time on record (since 1950) this has occurred.
AT THE BEACH: Pretty standard summer weather continues on the coast from Gulf Shores over to Panama City Beach through the Fourth of July weekend. About six to eight hours of sunshine each day with the risk of scattered showers and thunderstorms. Highs on the immediate coast will be in the upper 80s, with 90s inland. Sea water temperatures are mostly in the mid to upper 80s. See a detailed Gulf Coast forecast here.
The photo below was taken early this morning at Navarre Beach from @cindiglenn.
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