AWN Statewide Forecast for Monday Afternoon, May 18, 2026

Añadido: 2026-05-19

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

[00:00:08]>> [music] >> The theme of this statewide forecast on the Alabama weather network is going to be cumulus filled. We've got a beautiful field of cumulus clouds across the state of Alabama. Starting off with the Region Sky Cam Network from Section in Jackson County, 81°. You can see those beautiful fair weather cumulus clouds here all across the sky above the Tennessee River, Lake Guntersville. No better look than here in Calhoun County, Anniston, 84° with a dew point of 66. Looking beautiful. This is why May is my favorite month. The southeast wind gusting to 23 mph. Just got through walking back from lunch along City Walk of Birmingham here from Region Center, 83°. A good looking partly cloudy sky in the Magic City. A great day to get out and walk despite the warm temperatures.

[00:00:58]Also in Montgomery, lots of blue sky on the backdrop of these beautiful cumulus clouds in Alabama's capital city here.

[00:01:05]Our Region Sky Cam capturing those.

[00:01:07]Dauphin Island, 79°. The dew point 75. A southeast wind at 20. You don't see much in the way of a clouds here. That's because the sea breeze front has pushed inland and we'll see that on the satellite in just a minute. We'll also take just a second to show you a couple of pictures from our colleague Brett Adair, St. Libory and St. Paul, Nebraska yesterday. He captured that terrible tornado that was very damaging. You see even a horizontal vortex here associated with that very destructive tornado that occurred yesterday afternoon. Another picture as it became a really violent tornado there in Nebraska. Here's some of the damage captured from his drone.

[00:01:49]Just a terrible day and it's going to be even worse today. Now, our own storm doctor Lance King from Pensacola, he's out there also. He was near Syracuse, Nebraska, and captured the beauty on the backside of the storm.

[00:02:02]Uh the chaotic sky here, which I thought served as a backdrop. But, today is going to be the climax of this event. Uh today they're going to really be watching for big tornadoes and really big hail uh across Kansas, up into southeastern Nebraska, the very far northwestern portion of Missouri into Iowa. Places like Emporia, Manhattan, Salina, uh Hutchinson and Wichita, even into St. Joseph, Missouri. We've already got a PDS tornado watch now uh for portions of that area, and a tornado warning now for Lincoln County. Uh that uh now new tornado warning for the county just to the east. Uh some big hail, 1.8 in in diameter, a wall cloud there. You see the cumulus field over Alabama, though.

[00:02:45]Some showers beginning to show up over the southern part of the state. We'll look at that on radar in just a minute.

[00:02:50]But, you can see the sea breeze front has pushed inland across parts of the panhandle, Mobile, Baldwin counties.

[00:02:56]That's why we saw those clear skies on the Dauphin Island sky cam. You see the showers moving northward over south Alabama. Really being uh caused by that uh convergence along the sea breeze front as it pushes inland. Uh kind of a fairly common occurrence, especially May and June. You see them here lined up Covington County, south of Andalusia, uh back through uh parts of Escambia, uh Conecuh County, south of Evergreen back to the southwest along the interstate, uh approaching Monroeville now, Monroe County. Uh the big storms uh well, big heavy showers, at least. No lightning right now. South of uh Jackson and Clarke County got a big shower uh just east of Chatham there in Washington County. High temperatures so far today, Selma chalking checking in with their third 90° reading in a row, the hat trick there uh in Selma. Everybody else uh uh approaching 90. Montgomery at 89, Clanton at 89. Birmingham so far, 87.

[00:03:51]Tuscaloosa registering 89, but the breeze has helped. 23 gusting right now at uh Tuscaloosa, 21 at Birmingham, 24 at Florence and Huntsville. Let's go through the next 96 hours together.

[00:04:03]Partly cloudy this afternoon. Uh mid upper 80s touching 90 in a few spots.

[00:04:08]Those isolated showers kind of on the uh western extension of that uh plume of moisture coming out of Georgia. Uh they'll weaken as we lose the heat of the day. Uh slide uh a little bit uh into this corridor right here from Selma down to Greenville, Andalusia, and Geneva. By morning, uh you might see a light shower over West Alabama. Uh generally mild and muggy though. Upper 60s to near 70°. Should be mostly cloudy. Some zone here of partly cloudy skies, but it'll be a nice morning.

[00:04:38]During the day tomorrow, the clouds will break up enough to allow uh really good heating. Upper 80s for most everybody. A few mid 80s up north. Uh widely scattered showers and thunderstorms developing by mid afternoon. Uh they'll continue into the evening hours, but then we'll watch as this trough begins to approach from the west. A few showers and thunderstorms begin to show up during the overnight hours, Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning. You see them here over the northwestern part of Alabama. Maybe in the Shoals, Hamilton areas uh from Marion County up through uh the uh Quad Cities. Maybe even a shower or two here in Central Alabama, in the I-20 corridor. You may wake up to a little lightning and thunder, but no severe weather associated with that. Those storms will increase in intensity and coverage as we go through the late morning hours on Wednesday. And uh by early afternoon, they could be strong. Uh frequent lightning, gusty winds, heavy rain.

[00:05:31]That's going to be the main threat, but we'll we'll be watching just in case any of them get out of line at all.

[00:05:37]Scattered showers and thunderstorms over the rest of the state. Another warm day.

[00:05:41]Mid to upper 80s generally across all of Alabama. Those rain areas in north Alabama may stay in the 70s, though. Uh they'll die down during the overnight hours and uh we'll end up with mostly cloudy skies by Thursday morning. Uh upper uh 60s generally the rule uh with some mid-60s over North Alabama, a few leftover showers in the northwestern part of the state will rinse and kind of repeat on Thursday. More scattered showers and thunderstorms developing, another warm one, 70s up north, uh 80s over Central Alabama, some uh low 90s over South Alabama as the warm air continues to pump in thanks to that Bermuda high. Those scattered showers and thunderstorms will stay in the forecast. It won't be a washout Thursday night, but a few areas will get beneficial rain. More showers move through the northwestern corner early Friday morning and we'll do it again Friday afternoon. Some fog will be uh evident in the morning, especially over South Alabama. Visibilities may be reduced to less than 1 mile, so take it easy if you're going to be driving early tomorrow morning in uh southwestern portions of the state. But as you can see, it'll burn off quite quickly as soon as the sun comes up. Now, by uh tomorrow night, you see those showers over western Alabama kind of dying out, but that front begins to settle down into the northern part of Alabama.

[00:07:01]Showers and thunderstorms occur again on Wednesday. It doesn't make much progress. It's hard for it to uh butt up against this big ridge over the southeastern United States. It hangs out over North Alabama Wednesday and then goes back north Thursday and Friday as a warm front as low pressure begins to develop to the west back over Oklahoma.

[00:07:21]Showers and thunderstorms again Friday afternoon, mainly over the northwestern part of Alabama. Again early Saturday morning, uh but then uh by Saturday afternoon, another round, but it appears that the northwestern part of the state may be the favored area as we go into the weekend. We don't need that for South Alabama. That's where we need the rain. Uh we don't need uh all the uh rain to continue to occur in the northwestern part of the state, but we'll just take whatever we get. Sunday looks actually dry. So does Monday if the European output is right as the main rain area sets up to the west of Alabama and the ridge begins to flex its muscle. Here's the latest rainfall outlook from the weather prediction center. Now looking at 2 and 1/2 inches of rain for the Tennessee Valley, northwest Alabama, lesser amounts for the I-20 I-59 corridor with even less to the southeast and that's not good news because that's where our drought is really pronounced.

[00:08:20]We need some rain in these areas. Your 7-day forecast for the northern half of Alabama, warm temperatures will continue and a real warm up will begin after the weekend. 93 on Monday, upper 60s to near 70 for overnight lows.

[00:08:34]It's beginning to feel like June already. Foggy start tomorrow over south Alabama. We've got rain chances in the forecast each day. Best chance coming on Sunday. Warm temperatures will continue with overnight lows in the upper 60s and daytime highs generally in the mid and upper 80s with some spots touching 90 nearly each day. Next Monday maybe in the middle 90s. That's your statewide forecast here on the Alabama Weather Network.