An Arctic cold front was moving to the southeast across the Tennessee around 35 mph. Southwest to west winds will become northwesterly and briefly increase to 20-30 mph with higher gusts. These winds may knock down small trees and unsecured objects.
An arctic blast will move through the area this evening, and temperatures will rapidly plummet afterwards.
Skies across North/Central Alabama are socked in with cloud cover as we are making our run-up to the midday hour on this Thursday before Christmas.
There will be a huge swing in temperatures across North/Central Alabama from what we’ll see for daytime highs on Thursday to what we’ll see for early morning lows on Friday morning.
For the locations in North Alabama (Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, and Morgan counties), there are no changes in the watches and warnings that are in effect at this point; however, there will most likely be extensions to those products later on.
With lows expected to be in the single digits, gusty winds, and wind chills dropping as low as -10º to -15º at times, there is a serious threat of frost bite and hypothermia if you happen to lose power or have to be stranded outdoors or in a car.
Temperatures remain below freezing from late Thursday night until at least midday Sunday. Far northern portions of Central Alabama may remain below freezing until Monday.
It will be dreary and chilly week, with some really cold air coming in late Thursday.
Just before 11 am, skies were clearing out across the northwestern and northern parts of Central Alabama, while the rest of the area sits underneath mostly cloudy skies.
Mainly dry and cool through the weekend with showers becoming possible on Monday. An Arctic Blast attacks on Friday after the passage of a cold front. Could we see a few flurries with that system?
The GFS is throwing an interesting fly into the ointment with next weekend’s forecast with the possibility of a little wintry mischief…but first let’s get through the flooding threat for Wednesday along with a low-end severe threat.
Some of us will have to hold on to our hats as the breeze will be picking up for the afternoon. If you like cold weather, you’ll get to enjoy the early morning lows on Sunday morning. Freeze warnings and frost advisories have already been issued.
At the 3 pm roundup, temperatures were in the 50s all across Central Alabama, ranging from as warm as 58º in both Troy and Demopolis, to as cool as 53º in Gadsden, Prattville, and Talladega.
We’ll have beautiful weather after we step out of the deep freeze today, but showers and thunderstorms will return on Tuesday.
James Spann
@spann
Our long time friend, mentor, and charter Weather Factory member, J.B. Elliott, passed away on May 11, 2015. Click HERE to read James' tribute.
