Alabama 811 | Know What's Below.

Thirty Years Ago Today…

| January 12, 2012 @ 7:00 am

A powerful cold front moved through Alabama on Saturday, January 9, 1982, sending temperatures plummeting. The high on Saturday at Birmingham was 49, but it was down to 27 by midnight and the mercury was in a free fall like I had never seen. It was bitterly cold all day on Sunday the 10th, with the mercury slowly inching through the teens along with a powerful north wind and a few snow flurries.

But even more interesting things were on the way. The NOAA Weather Radio that morning gave the standard two day forecast with a three day extended outlook. It called for rain or snow Tuesday night. That is all that a snow fan needed to hear, and with temperatures expected to drop to near zero, the prospects of some wintry precipitation had to be promising.

The morning low on Monday the 11th was 2. The 500 mb chart told the story. A huge vortex was over Quebec, and a cross polar flow was delivering cold air straight into the Southeast. The mercury struggled back up to 27F on Monday, but with the high close by Monday night, winds went dead calm and the mercury plunged to –1 at the Birmingham Airport during the evening hours. In response to developing low pressure in the Gulf, cloud cover increased, and by midnight, it was back up to a balmy 13.

Morning forecasts on Tuesday, January 12th had called for a winter storm watch for occasional sleet and freezing rain that would arrive by sundown. By mid-morning, as freezing rain and sleet across South Alabama was spreading rapidly north, the watch was changed to a winter storm warning.

The snow arrived about 8 hours earlier than anticipated in the Birmingham area and quickly changed over to a mix of freezing rain and sleet that turned roads in skating rinks. Thousands of motorists had to abandon their vehicles on roads and hike home or spend the night in shelters.

Brookwood Mall became a huge shelter. So many wrecks occurred that the Birmingham Police Department could not answer the calls for accident investigation.

As temperatures hovered near the freezing mark through the night, freezing rain created a thick coating on all exposed objects. Trees snapped, pulling down power lines and putting as many as 750,000 Alabamians in the dark.

Travel became possible for a short while on Wednesday, as temperatures rose to just above freezing at lunch. But the sound of tree limbs snapping under the weight of the ice was like shotguns.

An upper level disturbance brought a nice snowfall on Wednesday night that led to some great sledding and snowball fights on Thursday.

But when it was all said and done, twenty Alabamians were dead and another 300 injured and damage totaled $78 million.

Reader Brandy Carden sent in this photo of her and her uncle from t he event. She was 3 at the time. The picture was taken between Roanoke and Woodland.

winter-storm-821

If you have any pictures from the 1982 event, please send them to pictures@abc3340.com

Follow my weather history tweets on Twitter. I am wxhistorian.

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Category: Met 101/Weather History

About the Author ()

Bill Murray is the President of The Weather Factory. He is the site's official weather historian and a weekend forecaster. He also anchors the site's severe weather coverage. Bill Murray is the proud holder of National Weather Association Digital Seal #0001 @wxhistorian

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