James Spann: Showers remain possible in Alabama through Saturday
RADAR CHECK: We have widely scattered showers in progress across Alabama this afternoon with temperatures between 77 and 84 degrees for most of the state. Mobile and Dothan have reached the 90-degree mark. Isolated showers remain possible tonight; otherwise, the sky will be mostly cloudy with a low between 65 and 72 degrees.
FRIDAY AND THE WEEKEND: The sky will be occasionally cloudy Friday and Saturday with a chance of showers both days statewide. A thunderstorm or two will be possible as well, but the rain won’t be especially heavy or widespread. The chance of any one location seeing rain is 30-40% Friday and 40-50% Saturday. On Sunday, we have just an outside risk of a stray shower with a partly sunny sky. Highs all three days will be in the low to mid 80s.
NEXT WEEK: At this point it looks like much of Alabama will be dry through the week. We will mention just the risk of a few isolated showers over the southern counties by Wednesday and Thursday. Highs will remain in the 80s, with lows in the 60s.FOOTBALL WEATHER: For the high school games Friday night, we have a risk of scattered showers, but nothing especially widespread or heavy. Temperatures will fall through the 70s.
Saturday, Alabama travels to Tampa to take on South Florida (2:30 p.m. CT kickoff). The day will be hot and humid, with a kickoff temperature around 90 degrees. A passing shower or thunderstorm is likely during the game, which, of course, means potential for a lightning delay.
Auburn hosts Samford Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium (6 p.m. kickoff). The sky will be mostly cloudy with a passing shower possible. Temperatures will be in the mid to upper 70s.
UAB will host Louisiana Saturday at Protective Stadium in downtown Birmingham (6 p.m. kickoff). A shower can’t be ruled out during the game. Conditions will be mostly cloudy with temperatures falling from near 80 at kickoff to mid 70s by the fourth quarter.
TROPICS: Hurricane Lee, with winds of 85 mph, is about 700 miles south of Nantucket this afternoon. Southwesterly vertical wind shear is expected to increase over Lee during the next 24 to 36 hours, and this is likely to lead to continued weakening during that time. Sea surface temperatures will decrease significantly just after 36 hours, when Lee moves north of the Gulf Stream.
The global model guidance suggests that Lee will begin extratropical transition Friday night, and this is likely to be completed within 48 hours, if not a little sooner. Regardless of Lee’s designation, it will remain a large and dangerous cyclone while it approaches eastern New England and Atlantic Canada.
Elsewhere, Hurricane Margot is weakening with sustained winds of 80 mph in the Atlantic far from land. It will move little over the next five days and should become post-tropical by early next week.Invest 97L in the Central Atlantic is expected to become Tropical Storm Nigel over the next few days. It will be turning northward and will likely remain far from land.
No tropical systems will threaten the Gulf of Mexico for at least the next seven days.
ON THIS DATE IN 1928: A violent, estimated F4 tornado, with winds of 200 mph, tore across Rockford, Illinois. It first touched down 8 miles south-southwest of Rockford and moved across the southeast part of the city. The tornado was on the ground for 25 miles with a width varying from 200 to 500 feet. Fourteen people were killed.
ON THIS DATE IN 2005: Hurricane Ophelia caused some damage and beach erosion along the United States coastline from Florida to North Carolina. The closest approach occurred Sept. 14-15 with its western eyewall crossing land and the eye remaining just offshore in the Carolinas.
ON THIS DATE IN 2018: Hurricane Florence, a large, slow-moving Category 1 hurricane, made landfall during the morning. After the eye crossed Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, at 7:15 a.m., the storm spent the next two days producing record-breaking rainfall across eastern North Carolina and a portion of northeastern South Carolina. More than 30 inches of rain was measured in a few North Carolina locations, exceeding the highest single-storm rainfall amounts ever seen in this portion of the state. A station in Loris, South Carolina, recorded 23.63 inches of rain, setting a new tropical cyclone rainfall record for that state.
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