First Alert: Cold, wet Tuesday for Alabama

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - Buckle up, there will be some BIG weather changes for us over the next few days. First, we’re already seeing rain across Alabama this evening, a band of showers with a few embedded rumbles is sliding through central Alabama as of this writing. These storms are “elevated” - they are forming on top of a layer of cold, stable air. Because of that, a few of these have produced some small, non-damaging hail this afternoon. No severe weather, no damage, no tornadoes, no wind, no problems. It’s just a novelty.

Much colder air “wedges” into Alabama tonight and tomorrow, as a cool easterly breeze becomes more noticeable as the night progresses. Temperatures will stay steady for much of Tuesday, ranging from mid to upper 40s along the Alabama/Georgia border to mid 50s in central Alabama to lower 60s in the far southwestern counties of the state.

The wind and intervals of rain will make it feel even colder, though.

That “wedge” of colder air erodes, and noticeably warmer air retakes the state Wednesday and Thursday. 70s are likely Wednesday afternoon, and a few south Alabama communities could reach 80 degrees on Thursday. Rain is a good bet for parts of both days, and a few thunderstorms could be involved, too.

The risk of severe weather is hardly worth mentioning, despite the warm and muggy air, the lack of wind shear and lack of strong wind fields aloft should keep thunderstorms below severe limits. We’ll keep an eye on radar, though.

On and off rain will continue Friday and Saturday, before a stronger system brings a chance of thunderstorms late Saturday into Sunday. There could be some strong storms involved with this system across parts of the Mid-South and Deep South, but we’ll need another few days to nail down the details of that system. Stay tuned.

The heaviest rain with this system will fall over the northern third of Alabama; we think the *flash* flood threat will mainly stay north of us. But, as that heavy rain flows downstream, some river flooding could become an issue for us late this week and into the weekend.

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