Big HEAT, Big STORMS

HEAT ADVISORY & STRONG STORMS: Temperatures this afternoon will be well into the 90s again and with dew points well into the 70s, we will once again see a dangerous combination of heat and humidity that will allow heat indices to reach the 105-110 degree range. For that reason the National Weather Service has issued a Heat Advisory through the afternoon and evening hours for much of West and Central Alabama as dangerous heat levels are expected.

The only heat relief will come from those random, scattered showers and storms. Now not everyone will be seeing rain today, but where the storms do develop and occur, they will once again pack a punch with the amount of instability in place. You can expect intense rainfall, tremendous amounts of lightning, and a few areas of damaging wind gusts are certainly possible, and we may even see a few isolated warnings through the afternoon and evening hours. Remember, rain distribution is uneven on summer days; some places will get drenched, other places will get nothing.

HOT WEEKEND: Not much change in the weather through the weekend, but we should see a slight uptick in the number of showers and storms these days. Expect scattered showers and storms each day and rain will be possible anytime, but of course, the greatest coverage in activity should come during the afternoon and evening hours. Once again, there is no way of knowing in advance when and where the rain and storms will be, you just have to watch radar trends. Highs this weekend will range from the upper 80s to mid 90s across Alabama.

INTO NEXT WEEK: Early next week looks very hot with upper 90s expected Monday and Tuesday, and there very likely could be some 100s showing up on the maps then, that is actual air temperature, not the heat index, which will be higher. Then for the rest of the week we are forecasting continued hot and humid conditions each day with highs in the lower to mid 90s, and each afternoon expect those random hit or miss showers and storms.

TROPICAL UPDATE: For the North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico: Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next five days.

Stay cool!
Ryan