Despite those somewhat milky grey skies, we haven’t had a terrible weather day as far as early March goes – with those upper-50s and some of us in NW AL tipping the scales at 60, it’s been a nice enough day for those outdoor errands and for those of us who want a cozy day inside. Over the next 24 hours, however, we pick back up those rain chances – and the next week? Well, Spring is back… and I don’t just mean that in terms of temperatures. Let’s break down what we can expect for the next several days into the coming workweek.
To start, we really don’t change the pattern in any major way as we wrap our Weekend up. The one key difference between Saturday and Sunday in this case will be those showers we see moving in – especially as we head through late tonight. At times we may have some light to moderate rainfall rates across the area, and current indications are that this will linger in an on-again-off-again fashion through our Sunday, so you’d probably be best off keeping that umbrella on hand after church or if you have any weekend errands to run.
Now, these showers are on borrowed time – they do linger a bit Monday morning, so you may need to turn those windshield wipers on if you’re heading into work early, but by the afternoon the shift south and east out of the Tennessee Valley is very noticeable. In fact, this dry air behind the system clears us out quite thoroughly, paving the way for not only dry conditions, but actually quite clear skies for the second half of the day.
As a result, this is the beginning of our trend upwards for temperatures. Our highs Monday will be in the upper 60s, and by Tuesday and Wednesday, we are likewise totally BEAUTIFUL across the area with clear skies and temps in the 70s already – a beautiful start to our week, all things considered.
Now, the 2nd half of the week is where things start to shift back towards more activity on the showers and thunder front – no pun intended. By late late Wednesday night and increasingly more likely into Thursday morning, we’re looking at a batch of moisture moving into the area that provides our next rain chances. The more robust thunderstorm activity looks to be off to our south, but showers and rumbles of thunder do seem possible in the Valley too, so this is worth considering for your plans in that mid-end week time frame, and also is a sign of the times in the sense that this is just the beginning of the broader, more active pattern as we head into the Mid-march timeframe.
The 7 day paints the picture the best with regard to the changes back towards more activity – as well as that warming trend, which combined, of course, is that return to form to Spring I’ve been referencing. You also can really see the midweek chances pretty well (Thursday is the key day), but also notice out towards NEXT weekend, the existence of a notable signal for thunderstorm activity in the area. We can’t get too specific on that yet, but models across the board seem to be (with some variations between them) in agreement that this timeframe will be active across the Eastern US, so prepare for a wet pattern, and take full advantage of those dry, warm days that we are being treated with in that early week time frame – because we know how Spring is down here with the rain and storm chances!
