Jason Simpson

If you’re ready for sweater weather, fire pits, and holiday stuff, here is a little motivation to get through the lingering summer heat!

As of today, Thursday, September 17, here is where we stand on the countdown to cooler weather and the holidays ahead:

🍂 Average First 40° Night: 32 days (Oct. 19) - Birmingham, Alabama area (slightly earlier to the north around Huntsville)

🎃 Halloween: 44 days (Oct. 31)

🦃 Thanksgiving: 70 days (Nov. 26)

🎄 Christmas: 99 days (Dec. 25)

Christmas officially drops into double digits today, Thanksgiving is an even 10 weeks away, and that first crisp bite in the overnight air is just over a month out.

This blazing heat can't last forever. It will eventually break.

But that doesn't stop me from wanting to drop kick the computer every time it pushes that cold front back by a week.

East wind in Pensacola driving in some Good Friday-Eve weather at the Gulf Coast.

📸: Willis Watkins

GOOD THURSDAY MORNING! You're experiencing history. September 2026 is now officially the hottest September on record through yesterday, surpassing even the legendary extremes of 1925 — and it did it without setting a ton of new record highs. Overnight lows have been running higher than they did back then, with afternoon highs actually coming in a touch lower. It's the sheer consistency of this heat that's remarkable: Birmingham hasn't dropped below 90 degrees on a single day since August 27th.

☀️ THURSDAY: Sunny, hot and dry. Highs in the lower to middle 90s for most of Central and East Alabama, upper 90s more likely around Tuscaloosa, Fayette and Demopolis. Rain chance: 10%.

🌤️ FRIDAY: Very hot again. A few scattered storms in the afternoon and evening, especially over eastern Alabama. Rain chance: 20%.

🌤️ SATURDAY: Partly sunny and very hot again. Highs in the upper 90s with a chance of scattered heavy storms. Rain chance: 20%.

🌤️ SUNDAY: Partly sunny and hot. Scattered showers and storms possible. Rain chance: 30%.

🌤️ MONDAY: Fair and hot. A few scattered storms expected. Highs in the lower to middle 90s. Rain chance: 40%.

🌤️ TUESDAY: A few scattered storms, otherwise unusually hot weather continues. Highs in the lower to middle 90s. Rain chance: 20%.

🌤️ WEDNESDAY: A few isolated storms. Highs in the low to mid 90s. Rain chance: 20%.

SLIGHT RELIEF, THEN BACK TO IT
The ridge overhead keeps steering our pattern, and right now its clockwise flow is pulling in a slightly drier easterly breeze. That gives us our best shot at near-average temperatures tomorrow morning, with some spots possibly dipping close to the seasonal average low of 66. It won't last — heat index values climb right back into the triple digits by Friday and stay elevated through the weekend. Friday itself looks like the hottest day left in this stretch, with Birmingham and Tuscaloosa back in the upper 90s to low 100s. Friday night football carries a scattered storm chance mainly east and north of Birmingham, but the heat remains the headline, with temperatures easing from the upper 90s to around 90 by kickoff.

WEEKEND: A LITTLE MORE UNSETTLED
Saturday and Sunday stay hot and mostly dry, though Sunday's rain chances tick up a bit as the ridge shifts west and sets up a "ring of fire" pattern — storm clusters riding along its northern edge. A weak area of low pressure moving into the northern Gulf adds more moisture to the mix too, nudging things toward a messier setup late weekend into early next week. The best rain chances sit south of I-20 and across eastern Alabama, though isolated storms can't be ruled out anywhere in Central Alabama.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL FORECAST
Alabama hosts Florida State Saturday with temperatures near 96 at the 2:30 kickoff, falling to around 90 by the fourth quarter. Auburn hosts Florida in the mid-80s with a light northeasterly breeze. Jacksonville State hosts Georgia Southern in the upper 80s with just a 10% rain chance. Troy plays at Missouri, where a passing front could push rain chances to 60% by late evening — pack accordingly. UAB plays at Louisiana under clear skies near the upper 80s. Miles faces Clark Atlanta near 90 with a light easterly breeze.

WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS
Fall officially arrives Tuesday, September 22nd at 7:04 p.m., with the forecast for that moment calling for a high of 92 — six degrees above average. Model guidance through the 25th keeps odds of hitting 90-plus unusually high, and even through the 30th those odds stay elevated, though there are early signs the atmosphere may finally start stepping down. Birmingham's typical final 90-degree day lands around September 20th, but a few more 90s look likely before October arrives.

Anybody else just numb to it at this point, or still counting the days since that last sub-90 afternoon?

She’s just trying to rest. Why you gotta be all bright and loud in your big truck, guy?! Geez man. 😎

BACKWARD STORMS!

This is good news, but it's not good ENOUGH news.

An easterly flow will fire up some storms in the mountains on Thursday, and those should start to build into Alabama on Friday.

Maybe a few storms here and there, but still blazing hot!

The fields are turning white in Cherokee County, which means cotton harvest is officially rolling across Northeast Alabama! Cotton harvest season is just beginning, and more fields will be "popping" soon. (If you see them, I'd love to see your pictures!)

Shoutout to Kimberly Rochester for sharing this great shot with Rochester & Sons Farms standing beside one of those massive round bales. 🚜💨

Seeing one of these huge rolls up close is impressive, but here is a wild fact most folks don’t realize:

A single round like this bale weighs around 5,000 pounds, but only about a third of it ends up as fabric. The rest? More than half of that weight is actually cottonseed.

Once the gin separates the fluff, that seed gets pressed for vegetable cooking oils or turned into high-protein feed for Alabama cattle. The clean lint that remains—around 1,700 pounds—is enough to make roughly 4,000 T-shirts or more than 850 pairs of blue jeans from just one round "module." 👖👕

Big thanks to the Rochester family and all our Alabama farm families putting in the long hours from sunrise to dust this fall to clothe and feed the rest of us.

Cotton field beginning to whiten up around Slackland Baptist Church in Cherokee County, Alabama! There are several with white bolls visible in Etowah and Cherokee!

Spent this awesome but hot Wednesday morning with some of the best third graders around at Centre Elementary School in Cherokee County! I’ll have them on TV today at five!

The view of Chandler Mountain from Steele, Alabama is so cool. That big ol’ rock just sitting there.