[Yosemitest]

Reference the vertical descent rate and speed, if you'll notice the radar scan at 05:30 AM here,

you'll see a line of weather that United Parcel Service Flight 1354 had to either fly over or fly through
and that line of weather was approaching Birmingham Airport,
and that's probably the reason for the faster speed on descent out of cruse altitude.

[radec]

A 5500 fpm descent is ridiculously fast. Your link shows that those storms weren’t even close and it was earlier reported that weather wasn’t a factor.