We started off the week with another cold-May-Monday morning in West Alabama. Jasper dropped to 48-degrees last night, Livingston dropped to 47, Centreville 49, and Tuscaloosa 50-degrees. Other than the cool start, it has been a really pleasant day for us. Tonight we will experience more cold temperatures, with lows dropping into the upper 40s. Even though this is cold for May standards, we still aren’t expecting to set a new record low. The actual record low for tomorrow is 36-degrees and that was set in the year 1960. The weather tomorrow will be much like today, mostly sunny with pleasantly warm temperatures.
Unfortunately, things will go downhill quickly starting tomorrow night as high pressure slides east of us. A south flow will usher in more clouds and the light breeze should keep us in the 60s tomorrow night. We will have a partly cloudy sky on Wednesday and during this time a cold front will be coming into view over the southeast. Look for isolated to widely scattered thunderstorms to develop late Wednesday and Wednesday night. As the cold front moves into Alabama it will become stationary, due to a more west to east oriented upper flow pattern. This will set the stage for the possibility of multiple rounds of thunderstorms and heavy rain.
First off, thunderstorms will be likely on Thursday and some of the storms may grow severe. Due to the time of year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of thunderstorm complexes migrate east/southeastward over the area. These complexes are called an MCS, short for Mesoscale Convective System. You may see or hear this term from time to time in some of the National Weather Service products. Another good round of thunderstorms is possible on Friday. In both cases, some storms may grow severe.
The main storm center associated with this system, will be closing in on our area Saturday. This energetic system will bring the threat for more thunderstorms on Saturday and we could deal with some big hail producing storms due to the colder air aloft. Look for the rainy weather to finally make a departure by Sunday. Let me say that the forecast setup is quite complex and the timing of the storms is rather broad at this point. However, as we close in on Thursday and Friday we will be able to lay out finer details. Have a great evening!
Wes Wyatt
Chief Meteorologist
