James Spann: Alabama stays dry today, gets another soaking later this week
Published 9:00 am Monday, October 28, 2019
FOGGY START: A dense fog advisory continues for parts of east and northeast Alabama this morning; that fog will dissipate by midmorning. Temperatures are mostly in the 40s over north Alabama this morning; the day ahead will be dry with a partly sunny sky and a high in the 70- to 75-degree range for most communities.
MORE RAIN AHEAD: Clouds increase tonight, and rain returns Tuesday to the southern half of the state. The best chance of rain will be south of a line from Butler to Demopolis to Clanton to Roanoke; the northern counties will be mostly cloudy. The high will be in the 70s statewide.
Rain will spread northward Tuesday night, and all of Alabama will have rain at times Wednesday and Thursday. There could be some thunder involved, but for now the severe weather threat looks very low. It will be another beneficial rain event for the state, with amounts from 2 to 4 inches for the northern half, with 1 to 2 inches down south.
Rain ends from west to east Thursday night; a very close call for trick-or-treaters, but there is a chance Thursday evening could be dry, especially for the western half of the state. We will fine tune this forecast as we get closer to Halloween.
FRIDAY AND THE WEEKEND: Sunshine returns Friday, but we will also experience the coldest air so far this season. We will drop into the 30- to 36-degree range early Friday morning, with potential for a freeze in some spots over north and central Alabama. Saturday and Sunday will be dry with sunny, cool days and clear, cold nights. Highs over the weekend will be in the 58- to 62-degree range, with lows in the 30s. Frost is likely both mornings, with a freeze for some.
NEXT WEEK: The first half of the week will be dry; the next chance of rain will come late Thursday or Friday with another cold front.
TROPICS: Pablo, a tropical storm in the North Atlantic, will dissipate today. Otherwise the Atlantic basin is quiet. The hurricane season will continue through Nov. 30.
RAIN UPDATE: Birmingham’s rain total for the year is 40.93 inches; the deficiency is 3.02 inches.
TIME CHANGE: Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend; we will set the clocks back one hour late Saturday night. Sunset time Sunday, Nov. 3, will be 4:53 p.m.
ON THIS DATE IN 1999: A Super Typhoon known as Cyclone 05B reached the equivalent of the Category 5 hurricane on this day. This storm is the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean. Cyclone 05B hit the Indian State of Odisha near the city of Bhubaneswar on Oct. 29. An estimated 10,000 people would die from this cyclone, and 1.67 million were left homeless.