HEAVY RAIN LIKELY AT TIMES THROUGH SUNDAY; CHRISTMAS TO BE MILD… Rain is likely at times all day today, all night, and into Sunday across south Alabama and northwest Florida as an area of low pressure develops in the Gulf of Mexico and moves northeast. This area of low pressure will act as a fire hose of sorts, ushering in tremendous amounts of Gulf moisture over our region. While rain is likely over the next 36 hours, severe weather is NOT expected. Rain will clear out by Monday afternoon, paving the way for a dry, mild Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for our region. Let’s look at your forecast details.
DESPITE RAIN, NO SEVERE WEATHER EXPECTED… We note the Storm Prediction Center has included the southern half of our region in their “General Thunderstorms” zone in the latest convective outlook. This means that while a few rumbles of thunder may be heard later today, there essentially is no severe weather risk. SPC notes that the air mass in place across our region remains cold and stable, thus likely mitigating any risk at all of severe weather.
RAIN TOTALS IN THE 2-4 INCH RANGE FOR MOST… The big weather story today and on Sunday will be the rainfall we receive. Most spots, especially locales east of Interstate 65, will get 2-4” of rain in total. Rain totals will likely be in the 1-2” range across west Alabama. These are event totals, meaning through Monday morning. Widespread flash flooding issues are not expected with this event, although isolated brief instances of flash flooding may become possible if heavy rain trains over the same area for multiple hours.
CONSISTENT TEMPS THROUGH MONDAY… Cloud coverage across our region is acting as somewhat of an insulator, keeping temperatures pretty steady now and over the next 48 hours. High temperatures today will peak around 55°. That is only 6-7 degrees higher than our morning low. Highs on Sunday will be in the mid-50s again.
LINGERING SHOWERS POSSIBLE MONDAY… Showers could linger into the early part of Monday morning before clearing out around midday.
WARMER & DRY FOR CHRISTMAS EVE… Sunshine will return for Christmas Eve on Tuesday. There still could be a few passing clouds, but rain and storms are NOT expected during the middle part of the upcoming week. High temps will surge to around 70 degrees by 2PM on Tuesday.
NICE, MILD, PARTLY CLOUDY CHRISTMAS DAY… If you’re a warm/mild weather fan, it looks like your Christmas wish is coming true this year. High temperatures on Christmas Day will be in the 72-74° range across our region under partly cloudy skies.
APP… Be sure to download our free RedZone Weather app if you haven’t done so already. redzoneweather.com/app is the link where you can download the app for your iOS or Android device. Once you have the app downloaded, be sure to visit the Alerts tab in the lower right corner of the app to select the specific notifications you would like to receive straight from me.
I’ll have radar updates throughout the day as needed in the RedZone Weather app. Have a good Saturday!
