BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – THE NEXT 24 HOURS: The dry weather will continue this evening, and the sky will remain mostly clear. You will continue to notice a slight haze on the horizon from the wildfire smoke in the atmosphere. This will give the sun another beautiful red glow at sunset this evening. Lows tonight will be in the 60s, with a light wind. Once again, some patchy fog will be possible in the early morning hours. You can expect more dry weather for Tuesday, with afternoon highs in the upper 80s.
THE NEXT BIG THING: The National Hurricane Center has released the first outlook of the season, showing a low-end chance for development off the coast of the Carolinas. While the chance for development is low, an east-to-southeast flow will pull some of this moisture in our direction on Wednesday. Therefore, we have included a small chance of scattered showers and storms. The chance of scattered storms will linger through the end of the week and weekend. The greatest chance will be during the peak heating of the day and some storms may be strong to severe, with intense lightning, hail, and gusty winds. Highs throughout the week should remain in the 80s; however, a few areas could approach 90º by mid to late week.
LONG RANGE: It looks like a seasonal pattern will continue into next week, with highs in the 80s, with scattered afternoon pop-up storms through next Monday and Tuesday. We will be keeping an eye on the gulf over the next two weeks. Some of the long-range guidance has been trying to pick up on a system. At this time, however, we don’t see nearly enough agreement to know if a system will develop. Eventually this season we will be tracking some activity in the tropics. The Gulf and Caribbean are regions of rapid development at this time of year. Again, I wouldn’t cancel any big beach trip plans but stay weather alert and check the forecast often in the weeks ahead…