Matt: Strong storms possible between 2-7 p.m. Monday

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - It’s been a cloudy, warm, and breezy start to Monday. We have seen southerly winds at 10-20 mph with gusts approaching 30 mph. The breezy conditions will continue into the afternoon as we wait for a line of broken showers and embedded thunderstorms move through North/Central Alabama this afternoon and evening. Temperatures expected to climb into the lower 70s this afternoon ahead of the main line of storms.

The Storm Prediction Center continues to have a slight risk for severe weather (threat level 2 out of 5) for areas along and north of I-59/20 corridor today (12/31/18). The severe threat remains low, but there is enough wind shear in the atmosphere that we can’t rule out one or two strong storms capable of producing strong winds of 40-60 mph and maybe a brief spin-up tornado. Best time to see these storms move through is between 2-7 p.m. They’ll start in Northwest Alabama at 2 p.m. and move out of our eastern counties around 7-8 p.m. Our main concern is heavy rain. With the recent rainfall, we can’t rule out a few spots that could see some flash flooding due to heavy rainfall rates in a short period of time.

New Year’s Eve: If you are planning on staying up to celebrate the new year, the weather is looking mostly dry. We could see a few spotty showers, but the models have us mostly cloudy with temperatures dipping into the 50s at midnight.

More Rain Chances: We’ll have a 30 percent chance for a few showers Tuesday, but another round of steady to heavy rain will move in late Wednesday and into Thursday. Rain chances look to linger in the first half of Friday before we finally clear out. Rainfall totals could add up around 2-3 inches for most of Central Alabama for the next five days.

Drop in Temperatures: Temperatures will be significantly cooler Wednesday and especially on Friday as colder air moves into the state. We’ll likely see highs in the lower 50s on Wednesday. Temperatures will plummet into the mid 40s for high temperatures Friday.

Weekend: First weekend of 2019 is looking wonderful with plenty of sunshine and temperatures around 60 degrees. Morning lows in the mid 30s. Make sure you download our WBRC First Alert Weather app to receive critical weather information as the rain and storms move through. We’ll notify you there if a warning is issued.