James Spann: Mild weather for Alabama through Sunday; wet, unsettled weather next week
James Spann forecasts more dry, mild weather for Alabama from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
HIGHS REMAIN IN THE 70s: Spring-like weather will continue across Alabama through the weekend with afternoon highs between 72 and 75 degrees for most communities. The sky will be mostly sunny today, followed by a mix of sun and clouds Saturday and Sunday. While most of the weekend will be dry, a brief shower can’t be ruled out over the northwest corner of the state Saturday. A few isolated showers are possible over the northern half of the state Sunday.
NEXT WEEK: A cold front will bring a band of rain and a few thunderstorms into the state Monday. The front will become parallel to the upper-air winds and will likely become stationary Monday night, and this will keep the weather wet and unsettled. We will have some risk of rain or thunderstorms daily through the rest of the week, and with some surface-based instability, a few strong storms can’t be ruled out at some point Wednesday through Friday. It’s a little too early to know whether severe storms will become an issue. Highs drop into the 50s and 60s Monday and Tuesday, but will rise toward 70 degrees by the end of the week.
FOOTBALL WEATHER: Saturday’s SEC Championship game between Alabama and Georgia will be played in Mercedes Stadium in Atlanta (3 p.m. CT kickoff). The day will be dry and mild; with a partly sunny sky temperatures will reach the low 70s by mid-afternoon.
ON THIS DATE IN 1983: The 1983 Iron Bowl game is one of the greatest in the history of the rivalry. It was played at Legion Field on Dec. 3. The game started in beautiful warm sunshine after a stormy night of very heavy rains that caused severe flooding in the Birmingham area, with 9.22 inches of rain falling at the National Weather Service Forecast Office on Oxmoor Road. If the amount had been recorded at the Airport, it would have stood as the all-time 24-hour rainfall record for the city until Hurricane Ivan. One person was killed by flooding in Bessemer.
During the third quarter, a line of severe thunderstorms was approaching western Jefferson County and a tornado warning was issued. The radar at Centreville showed a well-defined hook echo heading directly toward the stadium. The game was not stopped. By 10 minutes to go in the game, the rain was coming down in torrents as Auburn tried to control the ball and win the game in the horrible conditions clinging to a 23-20 lead. The rain began to fall so heavily that you could barely see the field on the cameras.
Fortunately, the storm did not produce a tornado in western Birmingham, or the results would have been catastrophic. Later, the same storm dropped an F3 tornado that heavily damaged the Winn-Dixie store at Sky City in Oxford, killing two people. A total of seven tornadoes touched down across the state that afternoon and evening.
Auburn went on to win the game 23-20.
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