The rain will begin to move out of most of the state by mid morning but the clouds will hang tough through the day.  Sunny skies will arrive once again on Monday with high temperatures cracking the low-mid 60′s.  Low temperatures should bottom out in the upper 30′s/lower 40′s.

The weather won’t remain quiet for too long, however, with a strong subtropical jet coming on shore along the southern California coastline.  It looks as if this strong upper level jet could have implications on our weather further into the work week with more rain and possibly some active thunderstorms.  Stay tuned…..the weather looks to keep changing over the coming few weeks. 

This morning….rain is spreading northward along the east Texas Coast as low pressure continues to organize in the western Gulf of Mexico.  Showers and thunderstorms have been common from the Houston/Galveston areas and southward.  The system is expected to pick up some speed as we head into tonight and push out over the central gulf spreading rain along the coastline of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida on Saturday.  I expect most of our rainfall to come after the 3PM hour tomorrow….along the I-20 cooridor, but some places to the south could begin to see the rain showers a little before noon. 

There is some conflicting guidance in terms of how much rainfall we actually receive, but we will stick with our 1-2″ forecast for now,  This may need to be shifted toward the south later….as some models suggest that the bulk of the rain will move through southeast Alabama in the Dothan vicinity.  Temperatures will hang in the lower 50′s on tomorrow with the clouds and rain becoming more widespread.  Some windy conditions could also occur….but should remain below wind advisory criteria. 

We will update you later in the evening on the progression of the system and if we foresee any changes to the forecast.  At this point, the weekend still looks to be rather wet.  Have a great, T.G.I.F.!

Currently…..it seems as if rainfall will begin moving into southern sections of Alabama tomorrow evening as we begin to moisten up the lower levels.  The main rain event will hold off until the day on Saturday as the surface low tracks closer toward the coast and then onshore across southeast Alabama.  Everything still suggests 1-2″ rainfall totals along the I-20 cooridor with higher amounts to the south.  No severe weather is expected.

In the extended…..it looks as if we will remain warm through much of next week with maybe a couple of shots at some active thunderstorms toward next weekend.  Guidance continues to indicate a very strong jet stream carving out a trough of low pressure along Pacific coast.  A surface low will likely develop east of the Rockies and give us a warm sector scenario.  It’s way too early to look at any specifics as far as severe weather is concerned…..but keep in mind that we could have a little more “interesting” weather than as of late.

Toward the end of the month…..I believe we head back into the deep freeze again!  We will watch for a “Greenland” blocking scenario and an Alaskan ridge to give us the deep troughing it takes to get arctic air here.  This allows the cold air to dump southward from the frozen tundra of the north pole.  This looks possible once again as we head toward the beginning of February.  Never dull in the south!

It looks as if we are in for a good soaking this weekend…..with areas around the I-20 corridor getting 1-3″ rainfall totals.  Our friends to the south of I-85 could receive 4″+ totals as the system winds down by Sunday.  It looks now as if none of the area will deal with much in the way of thunder.  The unstable airmass just stays off the coast  through the entire event…..so the best shot at anything strong to severe will be over the central Florida peninsula.  Enjoy today and tomorrow as the weekend looks pretty damp.  High temperatures will dip back into the 40′s on Sunday with cloud cover hanging around as our upper level system wraps in colder air and moves toward the north.

Enjoy your Thursday!

Temperatures will continue to warm up into the 50′s on Thursday and maybe touching 60 in a few locations on Friday.  Low’s will be around 30 tonight and tomorrow night, but will have a hard time touching the 30′s due to rainfall over the weekend.  This will be a nice break from the frigid conditions that we have dealt with as of late.

On a few notes…Scott Miller, owner and operator of Miller Web Technologies was responsible for our server move.  The website was down due to tremendous overload of our old server.  Our account should have been able to handle the load, but the host company continued to suspend our online account as many of you saw.  Now that we are with Miller Web Technologies, Scott assures us that this won’t be an issue.  If you have any problems with our site during the remainder of the minor fixes in progress, please contact me at brett.adair@alabamastormtrackers.com 

On another bright note…..I have been invited to write for Examiner.com as the Birmingham Weather Examiner.  This is a wonderful opportunity for me, our site, and the viewers.  Hopefully this will only allow us to expand our viewership base and push us to be better forecasters and content providers in the future.  We hope that you will continue to stay with the Alabama Storm Trackers during times of inclement and not-so-inclement weather.  More new features will be coming in the future….so stay tuned!