Lots of cold air on the way

If you haven’t already turned it on, you will likely need your furnace either this weekend, or almost certainly next week (unless you keep your house in the 50s in the winter like one of my colleagues from Minnesota). The weather pattern is complex, with a large upper-level storm in the Plains approaching, Gulf moisture coming in, and a wedge of cool air trying to move in from the east (along I-20 early this morning, temperatures drop from the 60s in Tuscaloosa to the 40s near Augusta, GA).

With rain on Friday, temperatures may be in the lower 50s by late afternoon, and drop into the 40s by Saturday morning. We’ll see lows 38 to 45 Sunday morning. A major cold front will come through Monday. It will be a wintry day, with temperatures holding near 50 degrees all day, and wind chills in the 30s at times! Lows will drop into the 30s over much of north Alabama Tuesday morning, with 30s and frost possible as far south as Montgomery on Wednesday morning. The GFS may be a little too aggressive with the cold air, but it suggests lows below freezing from BHM north on Wednesday, and some 20s in colder valleys. Either way, it looks like next week will feel like winter time.

Continuing to keep ourselves on a limb (even though the cold air is already ahead of schedule), JB Elliott and I did discuss about a month ago on Weatherbrains, and last week here, the fact that we expect a cold, snowy winter. JB expects a 6″ snow, and I predict BHM may see zero degrees for the first time since 1989.

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