Clouds and a few showers will linger, but the excessive heat has left the building!
After a stormy overnight last night and start to our Sunday morning, things have gotten much quieter. Showers and storms have shifted southward into central Mississippi and Alabama, but the rain-cooled air from this morning combined with lingering cloud cover and northerly winds behind the front have all worked to keep temperatures and heat index values down this afternoon. Temperatures as of the 3:00 PM observations are only in the upper 70s to low/mid 80s with heat index values not too far behind for most of us. This is a drastic improvement from the heat we've had for the past week, all the way up to as recently as yesterday!
We are very happy to report that the heat isn't in a big hurry to make a return to the Tennessee Valley this week either! High temperatures through at least Friday look to stay in the 80s, with low to mid 80s through Thursday. We do look to start to gradually warm up toward the end of the week, and that may lead back into the 90s by the weekend, however.
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Clouds will hang tough not only through tonight, but for the next few days, as a couple waves of energy develop along the front to our south. This may also keep the chance for a few isolated to widely scattered showers in the forecast the next few days as well, but we don't see any large areas of organized or especially heavy rain in association with this. There will be sun at times, but skies will likely have a good bit of cloud cover for the next few days before gradually clearing toward the end of the week as the system finally shifts off toward the Carolinas and the East Coast.
Meanwhile, still nothing imminently trying to develop in the tropics as of yet, but large scale conditions are gradually becoming more favorable, and we are watching the tropical wave that has rolled off the west coast of Africa. It seems like, as we head through the next couple of weeks, things may start to change and we see an uptick in activity, as you would naturally expect as we head into August.