Just a brief advertisement for an event I work hard on every year for the National Weather Association:
WEATHERREADY FEST 2019 IS JUST FIVE DAYS AWAY
It’s not too late to get your FREE tickets to WeatherReady Fest 2019: the one-day weather and disaster safety and preparedness festival for the entire family. There will be fun family-friendly games and learning activities, several large response and scientific research vehicles, enlightening speakers, and free tours of the National Weather Service forecast office in Huntsville and UAH’s SWIRLL research building. Special guests include Nick Walker from the Weather Channel, Meteorologist Jessica Faith from WAFF-48, and James Spann, who will be doing a book signing during the morning. The event takes place on Saturday, Sept. 7th, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Get your FREE timed tickets as they are going fast. For tickets and more information, please visit WeatherReadyFest.com. I hope to see you there!
Please forgive me for the lack of updates throughout the day today as my family and I have been in the process of moving. Once I get a good reliable Internet connection on Tuesday afternoon, updates on this site will be back to or a little above normal. Here is my latest look at the next seven days…
A HOT & DRY LABOR DAY IN-STORE FOR CENTRAL ALABAMA
A pretty typical late-summer forecast for Central Alabama for the holiday as we’ll have plenty of sunshine with very little in the way of clouds. With our winds remaining out of the east, we’ll stay dry as that will limit any moisture. Afternoon highs reach the lower to mid-90s.
SOME COOLING AT MID-WEEK THANKS TO A COLD FRONT, BUT NO RAIN
We’ll continue to see plenty of blue skies throughout the first work week of September, but we will not see any rain. A cold front will drift into Central Alabama late Wednesday night into Thursday, but it will only bring slightly cooler but much drier air to parts of the area. Highs will be in the lower to mid-90s for Tuesday and Wednesday, then down into the upper 80s to the mid-90s for Thursday and Friday.
THE CENTRAL ALABAMA WEEKEND
We could see another weak cold front that will bring us a reinforcing shot of dry air to the area during the weekend, which will mean sunny skies and hot temperatures for those home openers for Alabama and Auburn. Highs on both days will be in the upper 80s to the mid-90s.
HURRICANE DORIAN CONTINUES TO POUND PARTS OF THE BAHAMAS
As of the 10:00 pm advisory from the National Hurricane Center, Category 5 Hurricane Dorian continues to be a very dangerous and catastrophic storm slamming the Grand Bahama Island. Maximum sustained winds have dropped to 180 MPH from the earlier max at 185 MPH and is only moving to the west at 6 MPH. At this point, the eye of Dorian is only 135 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida.
On this forecast track, there will be a slower west to west-northwestward movement for the next 24 to 36 hours, before a gradual turn to the northwest occurs. The center of Dorian will continue to unleash its worst on Great Abaco and Grand Bahama islands through much of the day on Monday. We’ll have to watch as the center will come very close to the east coast of Florida late Monday night through Tuesday night.
Dangerous storm surge, along with very rough seas and deadly rip currents, will occur from now until at least through Thursday for the Florida coast, Friday for the Georgia and South Carolina coast, and through the weekend for much of the rest of the east coast. Storm surge at this point looks to be as high as 4 to 7 feet above dry ground from Lantana, Florida to the mouth of the St. Mary’s River, and as high as 2 to 4 feet above dry ground from north of Deerfield Beach, Florida to Lantana, Florida. Those amounts may vary greatly according to how close the center of Dorian gets to the Florida Coast.
Also, flooding will occur as rainfall totals from Dorian could reach as high as 5.00-10.00 inches in the Coastal Carolinas, with localized totals possibly hitting 15.00 inches. For the rest of the southeastern US Atlantic Coast, rainfall totals look to range from 2.00 inches to as high as 9.00 inches.
LET’S NOT FORGET ABOUT THE REST OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN
Invest 91L: Located about 100 miles to the west-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands and is moving to the northwest. It is getting better organized and very likely to become a depression around the middle of the week. Models have 91L continuing to stay on a northwestward path for the next five days. We’ll have to watch and see where it goes after that.
South-Central Gulf Of Mexico: This disturbance has a medium chance of becoming a depression over the next five days as it will move slowly to the west toward the coast of Mexico. At this point, no threat to the US, but any change northward would bring Texas into play.
South-Southeast of Bermuda: Disturbance has a low chance of becoming a depression over the next five days as the system is showing no signs of a closed surface circulation. Some gradual organization and development could occur as it moves slowly to the north or north-northwestward.
Central Alabama Weather 