Triple-digit heat hits Alabama
Temperatures have hit 100 degrees in parts of south Alabama, and the heat index is high on the coast where work crews are cleaning up oil on the beaches.
National Weather Service officials said Monday that there is no heat advisory in effect at this point but that high temperatures are expected to continue in the 90s — some areas in the very high 90s — the rest of the week.
In Tuscaloosa, temperatures have been above average for six straight days, including a brutal stretch the past three days. The high temperature reached 97 on Sunday and again on Monday; the normal high for those dates is 90 degrees. On Saturday, the high was 95, which was 6 degrees above normal.
“I wouldn’t consider it a heat wave,” said Scott Unger, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Birmingham office. “It’s spring, and it’s not anything unusual.”
The heat index in Tuscaloosa was 105 on Monday and Sunday and 101 on Saturday, Unger said.
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On the coast, Jason Beaman of the weather service office in Mobile said the sea breeze was “not really doing a good job” because it was raising the humidity level, sending the heat index on the beach into the 107-
degree range, brutal for workers on oil cleanup duty.
Temperatures rose to 100 degrees Sunday in Dothan and 99 in Montgomery, and similar numbers were forecast across South Alabama on Monday.
Huntsville hit 96 degrees Sunday — the record for the date is 100.
“The normal high for the date is 86, so we’re quite a bit above the normal,” said Chelly Amin, a meteorologist with the NWS office in Huntsville.
While no heat advisory was issued, weather officials said those with strenuous outdoor work should take breaks in a cool place and drink plenty of water.
A heat advisory for the Tuscaloosa area would be issued when the heat index is at least 109 for two consecutive days and morning lows are at least 75. Morning lows the past few days have been in the low to mid-70s, according to weather service data.
Muggy conditions and temperatures in the mid-90s could continue through the end of the week, Unger said.