COOL, DRY END TO 2019; STORMS RETURN THURSDAY… We’re ending the year on a seasonal, cool note with sunny skies expected across south Alabama and northwest Florida on this New Year’s Eve. Celebrations across the state and across our region today will be dry and chilly. Temperatures at midnight will be near the 40 degree mark, so you will need the jackets if you’re headed out to a celebration. No rain is expected today or tonight. Our next chance of rain will happen late tomorrow (Wednesday – New Year’s Day) evening when a few showers may move in from the west. The bigger rain event is slated for Thursday into Friday. There is a chance that we could have a few strong storms, but just like the last few events, there are big questions as to if we will have any enough atmospheric instability to support thunderstorms. The good news is we have a gorgeous, sunny weekend ahead. Let’s look at your forecast details.

THANKS FOR WATCHING IN 2019! CHEERS TO 2020… Before we dive deep into the forecast details, let me again express how grateful I am to each of you that regularly watch our videos and read our (sometimes insanely long) text discussions! We could not do what we do on a daily basis without your support and the support of our amazing RedZone Weather sponsors. Thank you all for empowering us to help you on good weather days and more importantly, on bad weather days. We’ve got some exciting new updates and products planned for 2020! Cheers to the new year!

YOUR NEW YEAR’S PARTY GETS AN ALL CLEAR… You’ll need the jackets, coats, and maybe even the gloves tonight as temperatures will be in the mid-40s by 9PM, falling to around 39-41° by midnight across our region. We won’t be dealing with rain or precipitation in the first 12 hours of the year 2020. There could be a few passing clouds, but overall, a nice evening to celebrate New Year’s Eve is upcoming!

SUNNY, SEASONAL NEW YEAR’S DAY… If you’re like us, you’ll be enjoying the black eyed peas, collard greens, and all the New Year’s food favorites on Wednesday. Skies will be mostly sunny throughout the day with high temperatures again in the low-60s. Cloud coverage will increase late in the day ahead of showers becoming possible Wednesday night into Thursday.

SHOWERS POSSIBLE WEDNESDAY NIGHT… Most of the rain holds off until Thursday, particularly in the afternoon and evening hours, but I can’t completely rule out a few showers as early as the late evening hours of Wednesday. Rain will be most likely Wednesday evening across Washington, Clarke, Choctaw, and Mobile counties in west Alabama.

STORMS ON THURSDAY; SEVERE WEATHER ISSUES UNCLEAR… We will likely need to adjust rain chances even higher (already at 60-70%) for Thursday as an area of low pressure gets set to move by our region. Our area will be in the warm, unstable sector south of a warm front in advance of this low on Thursday. That means that a few thunderstorms may be possible, including at least some chance of stronger storms. The Storm Prediction Center will likely introduce a low-end, Level 1 (out of 5) marginal severe weather risk for this event. This is a similar setup to what happened on Sunday night, but the difference is this time there is much more moisture in the atmosphere locally. This will contribute to rain totals being in the 1-3” range in total across our region. High temperatures on Thursday will surge to the low-70s. I’ll keep watching severe weather parameters and bring you the latest in the RedZone Weather app.

RAIN LINGERS INTO FRIDAY… Showers will be possible Friday as temperatures again approach the 70 degree mark in the afternoon hours. Rain chances should lessen throughout the day from west to east as cooler, drier air moves in from the west.

GORGEOUS, SUNNY FIRST WEEKEND OF THE NEW YEAR… Sunny skies and seasonal temperatures are likely for the first weekend of 2020. High temperatures will be near 60° with morning lows around 40° on both Saturday and Sunday.

SET UP APP ALERTS… We send quite a bit of Low-Level Alerts in our RedZone Weather app. The app is totally free for you! redzoneweather.com/app is the link where you see the download links to your respective app store for iOS and for Android devices. Once you have the app downloaded to your smartphone or tablet device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.

See all the details in your Tuesday #rzw forecast video. Have a great day and have fun tonight ringing in the New Year!