Alabama Weather Network Mid-Morning Forecast: Monday 07/20/26

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

[00:00:08]>> [music] >> It is Monday, July 20th. I'm meteorologist Sadie Morris with the Alabama weather network and we appreciate you starting off your work week with us. Your Monday is absolutely gorgeous. Barely a cloud in the sky on the satellite and it is just a beautiful. There is the one little portion of the most northwestern portion of the state that has a brief pop-up shower. Now, a few guys got a little bit of rain, but mostly nice and dry with some perfect looking cumulus cotton ball-like clouds over Birmingham right now. The region's skycam network really helps us to get a good glimpse at all of the areas across the state and it's warming up pretty quickly right around 10:30 a.m. this morning at 84° in Birmingham and in Mobile there with a nice pretty clear view. Over to Montgomery though, look at that bright blue sky already 87 with full sunshine.

[00:00:59]Not a cloud there in the sky in Montgomery. Huntsville, a few upper level clouds at 80. So, we're already in the 80s for most of you guys before the lunch hour this morning and as we approach our different mountain to foothill views, absolutely gorgeous. In Bald Rock there, we've got 85° and Region Center once again 84. Mount Cheaha is 72, one of the outliers there, but for the most part, warming up nicely. 88 in Demopolis. So, mix of sun and clouds today, but mostly sun for most of you. And if we take it to the coast, look how packed Gulf Shores is.

[00:01:31]Beautiful day to be out there along the beaches. We are going to have some increasing rip current risk though throughout the week. So, today's one of the better days ahead of some red flags pushing towards the rest of the week.

[00:01:42]Orange Beach, lots of boaters out as well, 85. And it is a little bit breezier. I will point this out at the coast and with the low pressure system in the Gulf, it's spinning up a little bit higher wind gusts. Still nothing severe, just breezy at times. 18 mph wind gusts at Orange Beach, 13 mph wind gusts at Dolphin Island, and look at that blue hue across the board. You can see the wind differences there just along our most southern portions of the state. 15-mph wind gusts in Dothan and Geneva, 12-mph wind gusts in Gulf Shores, 14-mph in Mobile. The rest of the state, not too breezy, pretty calm winds. And we've got a lot of sunshine today. We're heating up pretty quickly, and we do have some heat advisories in effect in the orange there for our most northwestern portions of the state. And so, these are areas just north of Selma and Montgomery, I-85, but many of us are also still out of that. Doesn't mean we won't be hot. So, this is just uh some of the National Weather Service offices decided to issue heat advisories through Tuesday evening. Doesn't mean you guys that aren't in these heat advisories won't also be feeling pretty steamy. Our heat index already this morning, although temperatures in the upper 80s, feeling like the 90s. Feels like 95 this morning in Birmingham, 91 in Tuscaloosa, 93 in Demopolis, 91 at the shores. Look at uh these the highs as we go throughout the day. We'll get up into those lower 90s, feeling like the triple digits by this afternoon. Look at this.

[00:03:04]3:00 p.m., around 106 is what it's feeling like in Mobile and Chatham, 105 at the shores, 99 in Troy and Auburn, Alexander City, 106 in Hamilton. So, most of you guys feeling like the upper 90s to triple digits today. And as we push towards tonight, it's going to be warm. Usual low around this time of year is around 71 to 72. We're a little bit above that, especially to our most western portions of the state, 76 overnight in Tuscaloosa and Demopolis.

[00:03:31]Highs tomorrow, as we head through Tuesday, going to be in the upper 90s.

[00:03:36]Now, this is the actual temperature, but the feels like temperature, when we add some of the humidity into the air, we're going to see those feels like temperatures upwards of the triple digits yet again. Areas feeling like 107 in Mobile, 101 in Thomasville, 105 in Selma, 104 in Birmingham. Once again, those are the areas that have that heat advisory. Some of our most south southeastern portions of the state still feeling like the upper 90s.

[00:04:00]Regardless if you're feeling like the triple digits or upper 90s though, it is hot and steamy and that's exactly what we're experiencing for the start of the week. And we look at our surface analysis across the entire country, many areas are pretty dry. There's just a few showers and storms across Illinois, Iowa this morning, but the bigger picture is this low pressure system up in the Gulf.

[00:04:21]Now, it's still at a tropical depression and we're going to watch it as it pushes through the Gulf and westward, but some showers and storms in Florida associated with this. Let's take it to the mid-latitudes. This is going to give us a better idea of the steering of our next weather system. So, 500 millibars where we're at and you can see a big ridge building off into the western portions of the country stretching all the way from California even through us here at home into Alabama. And so you can see that ridge building a lot of heat, sunshine, dry conditions, stable.

[00:04:52]I'll keep things very stable. West of the Mississippi River is really what's getting the brunt of that. And then for us here at home, we do have that low pressure system just south of us and you can see the steering here as it moves westward into the Gulf even towards Texas on the mid-latitudes. So, that's how the steering is currently going and has this high pressure system throughout the week. Here's Wednesday into Thursday continues to sink southward and southeastward towards us here at home.

[00:05:17]So, continuing to get some warmer conditions into the end of the week and also a little bit of a dip in the jet stream that could bring just a few storms as we ride that ridge. But overall, it's just going to be a spotty, our typical setup for this time of year.

[00:05:32]And so, if we track this out here, I'll give a little bit more of an expanded look so you guys can see what that low pressure system in the Gulf is going to do. Now, regardless if it becomes a tropical storm, if it gets its name of Bertha or not, we're still going to see some scattered showers and storms especially for our most southern portions of the state. And that's why their temperatures aren't going to be quite as high as the areas to the northern portions of the state. While still hot, a little bit more cloud cover and storms are possible through the afternoon today. This is 4:00 p.m. You can see just a few scattered storms popping up. By 8:00 a.m. mostly clear.

[00:06:04]And then you can see this continues to spin westward northwestward. And this is the track that it's currently on. And you can see the bands there bring a little bit of spotty showers. But by no means is it going to be a washout, especially through Tuesday afternoon.

[00:06:17]Very spotty showers. And as this continues to push westward, bring a little bit more spotty showers into the day Thursday as well. But if you have beach plans, it's not going to be a complete washout. You can see the bands continue to wrap around some spotty showers, but it's not an entire chunk of rain or swath of rain by any means. And so, that's what the current future track is showing for most of the state, a very classic setup where between 2:00 to 9:00 p.m. you can see a lot of the humidity, the heat will build, giving us the energy for some pop-up showers. But there's nothing unusual. It's typically what we're going to see around this time of year. So, if we check in with the tropics here, as of the 10:00 a.m. advisory, still at that depression level at 35 mph. Now, we need it to get up to 39 mph or greater to become a tropical storm and get the name of Tropical Storm Bertha. Now, we do have those uh tropical storm watches in effect though for portions of our most southern counties, including Mobile and Baldwin counties right along the coast, Dauphin Island as well, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach. And that's because this is expected to get to that tropical storm level around 40 mph by 7:00 p.m.

[00:07:21]tonight. Now, we're still going to watch it because it's moving relatively slowly. It's almost stationary still, but it is continuing to follow a path to the west northwest. And winds right now are at 35 mph, gusting at 45. So, the gusts have made it to that tropical storm level, but the actual sustained winds have not. And so, something we're continuing to follow as it tracks uh through the Gulf. And so, today through Sunday, the Weather Prediction Center has a little bit of a range between uh some areas in the yellow there seeing up to 2 to 3 in along the coast. Their Gulf Shores, Dauphin Island are part of those uh yellows, but a majority of the state in those greens about 1 to 2 in of rain in portions of our most southeastern uh parts of the state as well, Dothan there in the 3 in. But, this is how it's going to vary because we're still going to have to track exactly how this affects us. But, we saw on Futurecast it should remain relatively spotty. That's why some local areas could see even more or less than this a general area around 3 in as we go through the most southeastern portions of the state, 2 in or a little bit less as we go towards the most northern half of the state and in some areas just to the northern half of the state trace amounts of rain. And so, it's really going to vary as we continue to track this out, but local areas could receive less or more.

[00:08:34]Nothing we aren't used to around this time of year. Scattered showers can pack a punch quick and drop an inch or two of rain. Like we saw yesterday in some spots while the rest of the state remained dry. So, that's exactly the pattern that we're following and so, we're just going to keep you as up-to-date as possible here on the Alabama Weather Network. And about a 3 in 10 chance that any portion of the northern half of Alabama today and tomorrow could see some rain. And it's going to be hot. Little to no cloud cover right now keeping those heat and disease triple digits upwards of the mid to upper 90s in most spots. Rain chances continue to be very scattered throughout the rest of the week. Overnight lows in those mid to upper 70s. Southern half of Alabama a little bit of a greater rain chance, 60% chance for your Tuesday to get some more cloud cover and spotty showers with that low pressure system in the Gulf. Lower 90s across the board with more help of some cloud cover.

[00:09:21]Still feeling warm like the upper 90s to triple digits. Overnight lows in those mid to lower 70s.