At 1:10 pm, we have a good bit of scattered shower and thunderstorm activity over the northern half of Central Alabama and up into the southern parts of North Alabama. A few of these are currently strong with gusty winds, dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning, and very heavy rainfall. The stronger cells are affecting portions of Fayette and Blount counties. All of the activity is slowly moving to the east at 15-20 MPH.
We have a moist environment in place with precipitable water values approaching 2.00 inches, that means we could see some heavier amounts in the larger thunderstorms. We’ll have scattered to numerous showers and storms likely over much of Central Alabama with rain chances being a little less along and south of the I-85 corridor. Afternoon highs will be in the upper 80s to the mid-90s across the area.
For any high school football games that will play tonight, or for those attending the Sidewalk Film Festival’s opening night, showers and thunderstorms will remain likely until an hour or so after sunset, with activity quickly diminishing by the late-night hours. Temperatures at 6:00 pm will be in the 80s across the area and dropping into the mid to upper 70s by 10:00 pm. For the overnight hours, all rain will be gone and skies will be partly cloudy. Lows will be in the upper 60s to the lower 70s.
Chantal is a depression right now and is expected to become a remnant low sometime later today or tonight. Current maximum sustained winds are at 30 MPH.
Our main focus will be just offshore of the Florida Peninsula as Invest 98-L will likely become a depression or Tropical Storm Dorian over the weekend. Nearly all of the plots keep the disturbance over the Atlantic just offshore of the southeastern coast. We’ll need to watch as we may have some influence from well up north that may keep the disturbance closer to the shore. It will be no threat to Central Alabama.
Just behind that just east of the Winward Island is Invest 99-L. We’ll need to watch this one closely as well as forecast models have this ramping up to a tropical storm or hurricane by late Monday. One important item that may limit development will be a large amount of drier air that is nearby. If the dry air is pulled into the disturbance, further development may be slowed or stopped. NHC is giving it 50/50 odds of developing into a depression over the next five days as it is predicted to move to the west-northwest.
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Central Alabama Weather 