Good Morning!  Once again yesterday, random showers and a few thunderstorms dotted the radar.  It was feast or famine.  A few towns got lucky, but many towns stayed dry. The Montgomery airport recorded a Trace of rain.  Still, though, there has not been any measurable rain in 13 days.  Today through Saturday will be similar.  Spotty random  showers and a few thundershowers, rather widely scattered, most prominent in the afternoon and evening hours. Meanwhile, it continues quite warm with highs well into the mid to upper 80’s with lows in the 60’s. We may flirt with 90 over the weekend. It’s still April, but it feels more and more like a summer forecast. Here’s my brief video forecast discussion.

TODAY:  Continued warm.  Mostly cloudy with a few sunbreaks. High 85.  Light wind.  Random, scattered showers and storms will be around, in spots, today & tonight, especially in the afternoon and evening. Very mild tonight.  Low 63. (Normal hi/lo 81/54)

The front which has haunted north Alabama for several days will retreat to the north and wash out.  But afternoon heating will continue to set the stage for more showers.

In the upper atmosphere (500MB), a trough of low pressure will tend to keep the atmosphere moist, unstable for the next few days, conducive for a few stronger storms with heavy downpours and gusty winds, in some cases.

A couple of Future radar snapshots.  Not every town will get wet.   Feast or famine again.  Random showers and storms will be most prominent in the afternoon and evening. 

NEXT FEW DAYS:  Little day to day change.  Spotty random showers/storms are possible through Saturday, with the probability relatively small at each location.  Sunday looks dry and mostly sunny. I have the rain chance under 20% Sunday and Monday, but not zero.

Here’s the expected rainfall for the next 7 days.   Not much for much of central and south Alabama.  The better concentration will be in the northern counties.

Here’s the 10 day model blend temperature trend.  Very warm pattern looks locked in for several days. 

BEACH OUTLOOK:  It’s a great weekend forecast down at the beaches, from Gulf Shores to Panama City.  Comfortable and nice.  Unfortunately a high rip current risk, especially from Destin to about Panama City.  Moderate elsewhere.  The Gulf Water temperature has warmed to 75.

Thanks for reading the blog. Today everything is normal including LIVE on the Radio of NewsTalk 93.1 WACV.  There will be another video forecast discussion and Blog Update in the 4 o’clock hours tomorrow morning.  You can always find my forecast updates hourly on the 8 station Bluewater family of stations every day of the year.

–Rich