Published On: 08.16.18 | 

By: James Spann

James Spann: Unsettled weather for Alabama Friday through the weekend

James Spann has the Alabama forecast for the rest of the work week from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

A FEW STORMS LATER TODAY: Alabama’s weather won’t change much today. The sky will be partly sunny and hazy, and a few random pop-up storms will form this afternoon and early tonight. The high will be in the low 90s for most places, and the odds of any one community getting wet are about 1 in 4. In other words, very routine weather for August.

TOMORROW AND THE WEEKEND: As short-wave energy approaches and the air becomes more unstable, we expect the weather to be rather unsettled on these three days, occasionally cloudy with scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms. Most of the showers will come from around 1 until 11 p.m., but a late-night or morning shower can’t be ruled out. With a limited amount of sun, heat levels back down, with highs in the mid to upper 80s.

The Storm Prediction Center has defined a marginal risk (level 1 of 5) of severe storms for the northern third of the state tomorrow. The main threat will come from small hail and strong straight-line winds.

NEXT WEEK: Showers and thunderstorms will remain fairly numerous across the state Monday and Tuesday, but a surface front is forecast to push south of I-20 Wednesday, meaning drier air for the northern counties of Alabama, with the bulk of the showers and storms to the south. Dry air will likely remain in place over a decent part of the state next Thursday and Friday with showers confined to the Gulf Coast region, and even there they should be fairly scattered in nature. Humidity values should be a bit lower late in the week over north Alabama, with cooler mornings.

TROPICS: Ernesto is a weak subtropical storm in the North Atlantic with winds of 40 mph; it is moving northeast and will stay far from land. A wave in the Atlantic between the Lesser Antilles and the coast of Africa is moving westward; odds of development are low because of harsh environmental conditions. The rest of the Atlantic basin is quiet.

BEACH FORECAST: Click here to see the AlabamaWx Beach Forecast Center page.

WEATHER BRAINS: You can listen to our weekly 90-minute netcast any time on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including meteorologists at ABC 33/40.

CONNECT: You can find me on the major social networks:

Facebook
Twitter
Google Plus
Pinterest
Snapchat: spannwx

For more weather news and information from James Spann and his team, visit AlabamaWx.