Ian Heads For The Carolinas; Sunny, Cool, Breezy Here
Ian weakened to a tropical storm Thursday morning. Although, it remains a strong tropical storm. Any increase in wind speed means Ian regains Category 1 hurricane status. The 10AM Thursday forecast track from the National Hurricane center calls for it do so. Ian moves away from the northeast Florida coast Thursday afternoon. It moves over the southeast U.S coastal waters overnight, then makes another landfall along the South Carolina coast Friday.
Hurricane warnings are in effect for the entire South Carolina coast. Still, the forecast track remains well to our east through the weekend. That keeps Alabama mainly sunny, dry, breezy, and cool for this time of year. Outside of passing clouds in far southeast Alabama, the sky remains sunny Thursday afternoon with highs temperatures shy of 80° in most locations. The wind remains brisk out of the northeast at 10 to 20 mph, with gusts over 20 mph.
The combination of elevated wind speeds and low humidity fuel fire weather concerns through Thursday evening. A red flag warning remains in effect until then for most of central and south Alabama. Temperatures fall into the low and mid 50s again Thursday night, with a north breeze of 5 to 10 mph. Friday remains mainly sunny and breezy with highs near 80°. Friday night lows fall into the 50s again.
The weekend looks mainly sunny and dry with highs in the low 80s Saturday and Sunday. Lows may fall into the 50s each night, but low 60s otherwise. October begins on a pleasant note with sunshine and some clouds in the mix next week, but no mentionable chance for rain. Temperatures may trend a bit warmer, but still looks like highs remain in the low to mid 80s. Lows range from the upper 50s to low 60s each day next week.
