Some Light Rain At Times

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player on the right sidebar of the blog. You can subscribe to the Weather Xtreme video on iTunes by clicking here.

WELCOME WINTER: The winter solstice is today at 5:38 p.m… this is the day with the least amount of sunlight throughout the year and the lowest sun angle. The days “get longer” beginning tomorrow, and will continue to do so until the summer solstice on June 21.

CLOUDS; SOME RAIN: The clouds which fouled up our view of the lunar eclipse early this morning will stick around today and tonight, and some light rain will fall at times through early tomorrow morning. This won’t be a big rain event as amounts will stay light and spotty. The NAM is printing a whopping 0.07″ for Birmingham, while the GFS is similar with 0.11″. The high will be in the mid 50s, not far from average values for late December in Alabama.

TOMORROW/THURSDAY: Looks like we might need to maintain the risk of a little light rain through tomorrow morning; the rain will end from north to south, and by afternoon the clouds should be thin enough for a little sunshine to peek through. Thursday looks like a nice, but cool day with ample sunshine and a high in the low 50s.

CHRISTMAS STORM SYSTEM: Snow lovers continue to wait with anxiety every global model run across the world, hoping to find hope for that elusive white Christmas that never seems to visit Alabama. At least the players are on the field this year, with a southern stream storm system and lots of Arctic air poised to the north. But, we still don’t have enough evidence to mention anything more than a few snow flurries at some point Christmas day here in North-Central Alabama. Watch the Weather Xtreme video for the graphics and details…

The GFS remains very consistent; showing rain moving into the state Friday night, followed by much colder air on Saturday with temperatures falling into the upper 30s. Lingering rain Saturday morning could end, perhaps tapering off to flurries during the midday hours before it all ends. This is certainly in line with climatology, and we are continuing to use this solution in the public forecast over on the “7 day” page.

The ECMWF is slower and a little deeper with the storm, and runs the surface low on a track considerably farther south than the GFS. It hints that a little snow accumulation would be possible Christmas day up over the Tennessee Valley of extreme North Alabama. It has rain down here through about the midday hours Saturday.

And, the Canadian GEM remains the outlier with lots of snow down to I-59… that solution is rejected considering the horrible performance that model has had this cold weather season.

One way or another, the weather will be sharply colder Christmas day as we fall into the upper 30s and hover around that mark all day with an icy north wind. Sunday will be clear and very cold, with a low in the low 20s, followed by a high only around 40 degrees. Looks like Monday morning will be the coldest with lows in the 16-21 degree range.

REST OF NEXT WEEK: The GFS continues to advertise a big rain/storm event on New Year’s Day, followed by a flood of very cold air in the January 2-4 time frame (see the Weather Xtreme video). However, with a possible pattern change coming up (Greenland block breaking down and the NAO going positive), don’t take this to the bank. Plenty of uncertainty.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. Scroll down for the show notes on this week’s new episode.

FOLLOW ALONG: Here are our weather team Twitter accounts….

Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 3:30 this afternoon. Enjoy the day!

Category: Uncategorized