FIRST ALERT: More wet weather on the horizon

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - After a chilly day, we end Thursday with a mostly clear sky and chilly temperatures. Winds will shift from the west-northwest to southwest over night, finally becoming lighter closer to sunrise. We have a First Alert for freezing temperatures Friday morning with mid to upper 20s across all of Central Alabama. Make sure you bring your pets inside this evening so they can stay warm. We will likely see a mostly sunny sky tomorrow afternoon with high temperatures in the lower 50s. Winds will end up from the west-southwest tomorrow at 10-15 mph with isolated gusts up to 20 mph. Temperatures Friday evening will likely cool into the lower 40s by 7-8 PM with a mostly clear sky.

Increasing Clouds Saturday: We will likely start the weekend off dry and cool. Temperatures Saturday morning are forecast to drop into the low to mid 30s. Cloud cover will likely increase during the day as our next system develops to our west. We are forecasting a partly cloudy Saturday afternoon with highs in the mid to upper 50s. By Saturday night, we will likely end up mostly cloudy. A stray shower will be possible in northwest Alabama Saturday night, but I think the majority of Central Alabama will remain dry. 

Next Big Thing: Our next chance to see rain will likely occur Sunday. Rain will likely develop in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi and spread eastward into Alabama and Georgia. Showers will be possible by mid-morning with rain likely by the afternoon and evening.  With temperatures in the mid 50s, we will likely remain stable, so thunderstorms appear unlikely in this setup. The heaviest rainfall will likely occur in the southern half of the state. Rainfall totals are forecast to end up around 0.75 - 1.00″ across most of the area. Some of our southern counties could see rainfall totals greater than an inch.

Looking Ahead: The end of January and early February is looking very wet and unsettled. Models continue to disagree on timing of rain chances and temperatures, but they both show several systems that could give us rain chances. Next Monday morning we could see a few stray showers, but we will likely end up dry Monday afternoon and evening with highs in the low 60s. Our next chance for rain will likely set up Tuesday into Wednesday. Long-range models are hinting we could record 2-4 inches of rain next week. With a wet pattern setting up, we will have to monitor the potential for heavy rainfall and possible flooding. It remains too early to determine if we’ll see any strong storms, but right now are leaning toward focusing more on the wet weather impacts. For now, we have highs in the 50s Tuesday through next Friday with lows in the 40s.

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