Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Huntsville, AL

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523 FXUS64 KHUN 210528 CCA AFDHUN Area Forecast Discussion...CORRECTED National Weather Service Huntsville AL 1228 AM CDT Sat Sep 21 2024 ...New AVIATION... .NEAR TERM... (Tonight) Issued at 910 PM CDT Fri Sep 20 2024 Surface high pressure centered east of the Tennessee Valley, and upper level ridging building in from the SW, should help continue a dry forecast. Overnight lows should cool into the mid 60s (with a few upper 60s) and light winds. These conditions (clear skies, light winds, a longer night time) could be favorable for the development of fog. MOS guidance the past few nights has been hinting at fog with little of it forming so far. Will stay with a lesser fog trend, with patchy predawn fog in the grids. The on-going forecast otherwise has a good handle on things, thus no updates are needed at this time. && .SHORT TERM... (Saturday through Sunday night) Issued at 100 PM CDT Fri Sep 20 2024 The 5h ridge and 8h high looks to stay in about the same place Saturday into Sunday as a shortwave/upper low ejects from the Four Corners region into the central Plains. This will keep innocuous weather going in our area through the weekend. There will be a weak shortwave dropping southeast through the 5h ridge position Saturday night which may bring mid and high clouds through TN into north AL. Will keep the suggested 5-10% PoP in far north AL and southern middle TN on Sunday, but looks like vast majority will stay dry. Temperatures will be fairly persistent as well, with highs in the upper 80s to lower 90s and lows in the middle 60s to around 70. && .LONG TERM... (Monday through Thursday) Issued at 429 AM CDT Fri Sep 20 2024 Extended range guidance from the most recent suite of global models suggests that an upper low (initially across the MO Valley) will open into a trough as it shifts northeastward into the Lower Great Lakes by Tuesday. The surface frontal wave will move in conjunction with the trough, with a trailing cold front predicted to enter the region at some point Tuesday afternoon. Thus, although POPs will remain fairly low across the area on Monday, we do anticipate a general increase in the spatial coverage of showers and thunderstorms beginning in the northwest early Tuesday morning and continuing for the entire region during the day. Although forecast soundings depict a general increase in instability during this timeframe (due to higher surface dewpoints), profiles will remain dry aloft, and for this reason we will keep rain chances in the low-medium (20-30%) chance range. Forecast uncertainty increases considerably by Wednesday and Thursday, as the global models offer vastly differing solutions regarding how far south/east the cold front will track before stalling in response to the development of a cutoff upper low over the Mid-MS Valley. If a deeper cool/dry airmass manages to penetrate through the entire CWFA, then we will remain in a dry weather pattern during the mid-week period. However, current thinking is that the front will stall in our region (or perhaps to our immediate south/east), which could support the development of widespread anafrontal precipitation across our region. We have indicated a low POP to account for this level of uncertainty, but these values will likely be adjusted over the coming days. Temps will also be impacted by the ultimate outcome of the forecast, but at this point we have indicated highs falling back into the l-m 80s. && .AVIATION...
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(06Z TAFS) Issued at 1228 AM CDT Sat Sep 21 2024 With high pressure layered across the southern states, VFR conds are generally expected thru the TAF period. The exception may be some -br/MVFR vis early this morning and a TEMPO group has been maintained in the 09-12Z time frame. Light/var winds will also become WSW near 5-7kt late Fri morning.
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&& .HUN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... AL...None. TN...None. && $$ NEAR TERM...RSB SHORT TERM....17 LONG TERM....70 AVIATION...09