Winter Weather Advisory Expanded Southward

Well, the models have been hinting at snow for a couple of weeks, but since they were waffling back and forth, we didn’t put too much stock in them. And we wanted to get past the two severe weather events.

But now that we are, it appears that parts of North and Central Alabama will see snow tonight and early Monday.

The NWS Birmingham has expanded the Winter Weather Advisory southward to include Calhoun, Clay, Cleburne, Jefferson, Pickens, Shelby, St. Clair, Talladega, and Tuscaloosa Counties. It goes into effect at 6 p.m. tonight and will be in effect until 3 a.m. Monday.

This is in addition to the earlier Winter Weather Advisories issued by Huntsville and Birmingham. Here is the current status:

Rain will change to sleet and snow this evening over the Northwest Corner of Alabama first, around 5 p.m. The precipitation will gradually change to sleet and then snow for areas north of US-80 from Demopolis to Prattville to Auburn.  This is the HRRR at 9 p.m. tonight. The blue area is snow.  The orange is sleet.

The snow will end from the west after midnight.

Areas north of US-278 will receive 2-4 inches. South of there a dusting to 2 inches will be common. The best accumulations will be at higher elevations. The Birmingham area could see up to an inch, with a little more of the higher ridges to the south and east. Tuscaloosa could see one half to one inch.

Potential accumulations of snow

The warm ground will help limit accumulations, but bridges and overpasses will become slipper quickly and travel could be difficult later tonight and early Monday in the Winter Weather Advisory areas.

Lows tonight will drop to the upper 20s and low 30s across the area.  Monday highs will struggle to get out of the 30s.  There will be a gusty northwest wind into Monday morning.

Category: ALL POSTS, Winter Weather