Very Warm and Dry until Friday

An upper ridge is in place over the region and that means nice and warm days with more sun than clouds. Highs today will be in the mid 80s, while Wednesday and Thursday will be in the upper 80s, very warm for the final week of April. Nights will be fair and comfortable with temps generally in 60s. For the next few days, moisture levels slowly rise so each day should feature a few more clouds, but we look to stay dry into Thursday Night.

RAIN/STORMS RETURN: A front will approach the area late Thursday bringing our next chance of rain late Thursday night and into Friday. Good news, there will be very little instability and the main dynamics will pass well to the north of Alabama, so for now severe storms are not in the forecast. Highs will be in the 80s Thursday and 70s Friday. Rain amounts for most of the state will be around one inch, and the rain will end from northwest to southeast during the day Friday.

FIRST WEEKEND OF MAY: We will mention there is quiet a bit of model discrepancy for the weekend, so the forecast in the coming days certainly could change. But for now, we will forecast very nice weather for the first two days of May. Both days will be mostly sunny with highs in the upper 70s on Saturday, and warming into the low 80s on Sunday.

NEXT WEEK: Moisture will increase a bit by Monday with some risk of widely scattered showers, but the best chance of rain next week will come in the Wednesday/Thursday time frame with another cold front.

10 YEARS AGO TODAY – APRIL 27, 2011, TORNADO OUTBREAK: The 2011 Super Outbreak spanned multiple days and affected 26 states across the southern and eastern United States with 216 confirmed tornadoes, and some 348 deaths. Alabama was the hardest hit, as several waves of tornado and wind damage producing-storms swept through the state beginning before sunrise and continuing well past sunset.

Over an 18 hour period, 62 tornadoes tracked across Alabama, cutting a damage path greater than 1200 miles and securing the place of this rare event in history. On that day, 252 Alabamians lost their lives, with thousands of others injured. Countless, neighborhoods, schools, churches, businesses were destroyed or damaged. In many locations, words and emotions could not accurately describe the extreme destruction. Hopefully, we will never see another day like this in Alabama.

Have an incredible day!!!
Ryan