Cold the Word of the Day

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I don’t think there is any other way to describe the conditions for us for today – and that word is C O L D ! ! ! As the surface low from the storm system which brought a significant severe weather outbreak to parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama exits through the Ohio River Valley, it is continuing to bring serious winter weather problems to a long corridor of the US stretching from the Memphis area all the way to New England. This even includes some blizzard warnings. Plus there continues to be a severe weather threat for the Southeast US Coast with a moderate risk today for much of North and South Carolina coastal areas.

And today is going to be a raw day across our area with a strong west to northwest wind at 12 to 20 mph with higher gusts. Our high occurred at midnight with a 57 at the Birmingham airport. Temperatures will be holding steady today or perhaps falling. And with all of the clouds that will be hanging around, you can’t rule out some snow flurries or patchy areas of rain and snow mixed. Temperatures just above the surface are becoming quite cold.

Thursday should be a better day with sunshine returning and afternoon temperatures warming into the upper 40s – that’s a little better. Friday will see lows again down around 30 but as the upper flow goes more southwesterly ahead of the next upper trough, we should climb into the middle 50s. Rain returns Friday evening into Saturday morning, but conditions should be drying as the rain moves out of the area on Saturday afternoon. It does not appear likely that there will be any severe weather threats for us with the next system (insert sigh of relief here!).

Look for another dry and cold day for Sunday with a slight warm up for the last day of 2012. We noted that the computer models were in fantastic agreement with the last system, but there are big differences around the 1st of 2012. The GFS is much wetter than the European which is completely dry.

Rainfall amounts late Friday and into Saturday are likely to run around a half inch for many locales.

The screaming message from the projections in voodoo country is that the pattern remains active plus we may be shifting into a much colder pattern with the GFS suggesting a long wave trough setting up along the Mississippi River Valley which would produce an extended period of cold weather.

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Thanks for tuning into the Weather Xtreme Video. I anticipate having the next edition posted on Thursday morning as we continue with a one-a-day schedule through the holidays. Have a wonderful day, and Godspeed.

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather