Chilly but a Warmup Ahead

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It is definitely chilly across Central Alabama this morning with temperature readings at daybreak sitting around the 20-degree mark. No record but certainly cold. The record low for today, by the way, is 5 degrees set in 1899! I think it feels a lot colder to us since we’ve seen some rather mild weather for much of 2012. But take heart, the warming trend will begin today with a good supply of sun – filtered a bit through some cirrus clouds – with less wind than yesterday and highs climbing to the lower 40s.

Warming trend continues into the upcoming week with another chilly start to the day Monday with temperatures dropping back into the lower and middle 20s. But by Monday afternoon as clouds increase we should see highs reach back to the lower 50s.

Clouds will increase Monday ahead of a short wave coming out of the Rockies. This system is expected to create some wintery weather issues tonight and Monday from Southwest Texas northeastward to Missouri. It does not appear that this will be more of an inconvenient event with many NWS offices in that section of the country posting winter weather advisories as opposed to warnings. While I do not expect to see any serious issues for Alabama, some wintery precipitation is possible north of Birmingham primarily in the Tennessee Valley. It seems likely that the precipitation could begin with a mixture of snow and rain with a little sleet possible, too. However, the window for the wintery mix is fairly small – less than 6 hours – and the ground is warm enough that I do not expect this to cause any travel issues. We’ll stay cloudy Tuesday but the precipitation should be out of here in the morning.

Wednesday looks dry, but another system approaches by late in the day bringing another round of rain late Wednesday and into Thursday. It looks like that rain will be over by Thursday afternoon as we clear out into Friday. Friday will be cooler but not extremely cold with much of the colder air remaining north of the Tennessee Valley.

Yet another disturbance comes across Texas on Saturday – the upper flow remains very fast – but it appears likely that the precipitation will remain along and south of the Gulf Coast. So we’ll see clouds only. By Sunday the main trough has moved into the Atlantic while another substantial trough has moved into southern California returning us to more of a zonal flow with milder weather once again.

Rainfall accumulation for the two events will be around an inch for much of Central Alabama.

Things further out have flipped as the GFS is painting a much chillier look versus the warm look we saw yesterday. But then it’s called voodoo country for a reason!! Potentially wet scenario around the 21st with a very cold look to the pattern by the 27th. We’ll see!

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Thanks to Colonel Sanders for filling in yesterday! I expect James Spann to be back all fresh and full of energy with the next Weather Xtreme Video first thing Monday morning. If you are local to the Birmingham area, I’ll be filling in one last time this evening on ABC 3340 at 5 and 10 pm. Godspeed.

-Brian-

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Category: Alabama's Weather