AWN Statewide Forecast for Thursday Morning, May 21, 2026

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:01][music] >> It's time for your statewide Alabama weather cast.

[00:00:08]>> [music] >> Let's talk fog and low clouds on this edition of the statewide forecast here on the Alabama weather network. Our satellite product that picks that up showing a fairly thick low clouds over much of Alabama early this morning. In some areas those low clouds actually acting as fog here at the section Weatherington Park on our region's skycam network 72 degrees here with a dew point of 70 beginning to gradually warm. The fog and low clouds beginning to gradually mix out. Starting to see the Tennessee River finally. It's been pea soup here all morning in this humid soupy air mass. Gadsden was kind of hard to see too. City Hall, the Coosa River, downtown looking beautiful beginning to come into a little focus. The dew point here in Etowah County 67 degrees down to Alabaster in Shelby County 72 over 71.

[00:01:07]Low clouds hugging the surface above the Alabama countryside. And our region's skycam network at Bald Rock beginning to make out the Alabama countryside here.

[00:01:17]68 over 68 that's saturated 100% relative humidity there in Saint Clair County. A beautiful sky from Jefferson and Marengo County. Blue skies intermixed with clouds a mostly cloudy sky but you can see some breaks in the overcast there. And our final stop at Gulf Shores. The breakers rolling in from the Gulf. No rip current advisories in effect but pay attention to those flags along the beaches, the eastern panhandle beaches there around 30A.

[00:01:49]Panama City down to Port Saint Joe. Red flags are flying so pay attention to those. Swim near lifeguards, and uh make sure that you uh uh brush up on your rip current safety rules. For satellite radar, shows clearing skies over southeast Alabama, some persistent low clouds here, uh parts of uh Coffee and Dale County, uh down into Geneva County, clearing skies over southwestern Alabama, let the heating begin. We've got uh some heavy showers there between Jackson and Hattiesburg, triggering flash flood warnings. In Alabama, the activity is beginning to slowly uh dissipate, but uh we've had some uh fairly nice rains overnight. Radar shows that activity over northwest Alabama slowly moving to the northeast, and a little closer look shows uh the heaviest rain now uh covering good bit of Lamar County over into northern Fayette County, some heavy showers there between Hamilton and Guin, up to near Haleyville into northwestern Winston County, southeastern parts of Franklin County, into southwestern uh parts of Lawrence County. Uh there's southwest of Moulton.

[00:02:56]Those light showers on the east side of the state, there are parts of Calhoun, St. Clair counties uh up into Cherokee County, also moving to the northeast.

[00:03:04]Our legion of skywatchers across the state of Alabama checking in this morning, Daniel Harmon in Trenton picked up nearly an inch of rain, 67° this morning. Vic Bell at Black Creek, just uh 5/100, but he had 67° as well. Sandra Kirkwood, New Market, 68°. Jordan Housen in Chelsea checked in with 69, and Ronald Hewer, sorry Ronald, uh fat finger typing this morning, Ronald Hughes, our uh old friend and uh great skywatcher in Coker, uh.12 in, just over a tenth of an inch of rain in Tuscaloosa County and a temperature of 71. Looking across the state this morning, 70s kind of rule the roost, we've got a few upper 60s uh thrown in for good measure like Monroeville, 65 at Eufaula, checking in as the state's cool spot. But temperatures here at 10:03, I haven't moved a whole lot yet, beginning to accelerate over southwestern Alabama where we saw that clearing.

[00:04:04]Eufaula probably the biggest gains of the day, up 15° from that morning low, already at 80. Let's go through the next 96 hours together so we can kind of let you plan what to look at. This is our Baron in-house model. is not going to look anything like this. Well, not exactly like this, but you can get an idea about coverage and sort of intensity of rainfall. Through the morning hours, a few light showers still continuing to dissipate, but as the clouds begin to break up, temperatures warm and instabilities rise, we'll see more showers and thunderstorms forming.

[00:04:42]They should be scattered by mid-afternoon, most concentrated in southwest Alabama and in the Tennessee Valley. Temperatures today going to be upper 70s in the northern part of the state, mid to upper 80s across the rest of Alabama. Go through the night tonight, those showers will lie down pretty quickly. We shouldn't have any widespread shower or thunderstorm activity overnight. Wake up to a mostly cloudy sky tomorrow, more of those low clouds, kind of the pea soupy conditions, high humidities, mid and upper 60s in the northern half of the state, lower 70s over southern Alabama. You'll see a few showers over the western part of the state as you wake up. Those are going to increase during the day again as the skies clear just enough to allow that warming to begin. We'll be watching all the activity over Mississippi. The front and trough will be beginning to energize during the afternoon. Those showers and storms will move into Alabama during the early evening hours. Here's what things could look like around 7:00. You know there are lots of things going on about that time. So temperatures falling through the 70s at that point, but showers and thunderstorms could be fairly widespread from the Tennessee Valley down through Central Alabama, the I-59, I-20 corridor, back through Demopolis, Tuscaloosa, and into Mississippi. That activity continues to push east holding together here through midnight in the I-59 corridor down through Selma, Monroeville, Jackson, perhaps into even Atmore at that point, and slowly lifts out during the overnight hours. Saturday morning, you wake up to more of those low clouds, cloudy skies, humid conditions, mid and upper 60s north, lower 70s over South Alabama. A few scattered showers mainly over northeast Alabama, a few over southwestern parts. Rinse and repeat during the day Saturday. It will not be a total washout, but you'll have to dodge a few splash and dash showers and thunderstorms during the day. High temperatures will be generally between 82 and 88°, depending on how much rain you get and when it falls. Could see a few 90s here and there, depending on how much sunshine you get and when the rain shows up on your doorstep. The showers and thunderstorms begin to diminish Saturday evening. Temperatures fall back through the 70s into the upper 60s and lower 70s by Sunday morning with more clouds and humid conditions. Rinse and repeat for Sunday. We continue to um to see showers and thunderstorms every day.

[00:07:17]Just just rounds of them with upper level disturbances and all of the heat and humidity around. It's a holiday weekend, so you have plans, and you're just going to have to check the radar and see what's going on. Another batch moving in Sunday night, we may be up late babysitting them. They continue into the early morning hours on Monday, lifting out pretty quickly, but I'm telling you right now, we're grateful for the rain.

[00:07:43]Now, let's look at the European also to kind of get its opinion of what's going to happen over the next 7 days. That front is really the focus. This low pressure by tomorrow moves into the southeastern part of Missouri. As it does, it lifts that warm front to the north. That just reinforces the warmth and moisture over Alabama. Showers and thunderstorms again on Saturday, again on Sunday as we kind of already talked about. They continue into Monday Memorial Day and Tuesday, the day after. And it looks like Wednesday has the same pattern, not really changing even as we get into Thursday. Now, the good news is all of that rainfall continues to improve this product, which is our rainfall outlook through next Wednesday. Some 4-in amounts over northwest Alabama. And now the northern half of Alabama, 2 in or more. That's a great improvement. The southeastern part, now we're talking about 1 in or more for most locations, which is really a substantial improvement over what we were talking about. The northern half of Alabama 7-day rain chances every day. The best rain chances are going to come in that Saturday through Tuesday period. Warm will be the main watchword in the temperature department between 82 and 88 each day. Overnight lows have settled into this kind of early summer pattern in the upper 60s. For the southern half of Alabama, warm again generally between about 85 and 88. Overnight lows right around 70. Best chances for rain again in that Friday through Tuesday period, but we will take everything we can get at this point and be very grateful for it. That's your statewide forecast here on the Alabama Weather Network.