Friday will definitely be a great day in Birmingham to greet the fans and teams at Barber Motorsports Park for the first day of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama event weekend. After starting off rather chilly near 40 degrees in the morning at daybreak, skies will be sunny throughout the day, and highs will top out in the upper 60s to near 70 degrees. Winds will be out of the east-northeast at 5-12 MPH, and there is no chance of rain.
Saturday's Weather
It will be a fantastic day out at the track for qualifying and races as we'll have comfortable temperatures with mainly sunny skies. Clouds will start to move in during the late afternoon into the early evening hours, but we'll stay dry during the on-track times. Morning lows will start off in the mid-40s and will warm into the mid-70s for the daytime high. Winds will be out of the east-southeast at 4-10 MPH. A few scattered showers are possible during the late evening through the overnight hours, but thunderstorms are unlikely at this point. Just may have the pitter-patter of raindrops hitting the tops of the tents and campers on the grounds.
Sunday's Weather
Sunday's weather at Barber Motorsports Park unfortunately still looks pretty wet with the North American Mesoscale (NAM) model now in play throughout the weekend. Scattered showers look to be possible to start off the day, but the better risks for storms move in during the early parts of the afternoon and persisting through the early evening hours. A center of low pressure will be located in east-central Arkansas to start the day and will move into northern Mississippi by early evening. Out ahead of the cold front that will be associated with that low, surface instability values will be in the 900-1200 J/kg range, so lightning will be possible. I'll have to wait one more day for the high-resolution NAM model comes into play to see what and if there will be any severe risks.
At this point, the Storm Prediction Center does not have any severe weather risk areas defined for the area on Sunday. Plus, the GFS and European models have come into much better agreement so rain will now be likely. Winds will be out of the east-southeast averaging 8-12 MPH. Skies will be mainly cloudy throughout the day when it's not raining, and rain chances are now up to 100%. The morning will start off in the mid-50s and will only warm into the upper 60s for the daytime high. I hate to say it... it looks like delays are possible on Sunday.