Snow Day Tomorrow; Then Bitterly Cold

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We always have many new readers during active weather; I just wanted to remind everybody we are excessively busy during weeks like this and don’t have time to see what other web sites are saying or forecasting. If you want to know why they are forecasting what they are forecasting, then you will need to contact them. I probably have 200 emails today from people asking about forecasts from The Weather Channel, Accuweather, other TV stations, Country Boy Eddie, and Nick Saban. We lay everything out here with the Weather Xtreme video so you will know why we forecast what we do. So… having said that… let’s go with the FAQ format again today concerning weather in coming days….

WHEN? The 12Z runs are a little slower, so it looks like the main 12 hour window for snow in Alabama will be from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. tomorrow. Some snow is possible over extreme West Alabama as early as 7:00 to 9:00, but most of it will come after mid-morning. All of the snow should be out of Alabama by 10:00 tomorrow night.

HOW MUCH, AND WHERE? We still see no reason to change our forecast accumulation. Watch the Weather Xtreme video for the graphics… there is potential for 1 to 2 inches of snow for Central Alabama, generally south of a line from Reform to Gardendale to Saks, and north of a line from Demopolis to Billingsley to Lafayette. To the north, limited moisture should keep the accumulation to around one inch for North Alabama, and a wintry mix is likely for the U.S. 80 corridor and points south, with all rain for the southern quarter of Alabama, south of U.S. 84.

Remember, there will be exceptions, but this general idea still looks excellent here.

TRAVEL ISSUES: Snow could begin to create slick spots on bridges and high terrain roads in the 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. time frame. Icy travel is likely from 4:00 p.m. all the way through mid-morning Friday, and again the bulk of the problems will come on bridges and roads over the ridges of North and Central Alabama. The good news is that is snow, not freezing rain, that limit the severity of the problems, but slick spots will be a very real problem tomorrow night into Friday morning.

Evaporation should lead to better conditions by Friday afternoon, even though temperatures will stay below freezing. You will have to watch for any leftover moisture Friday night and over the weekend; isolated icy patches will remain possible. But, generally speaking, travel should not be too bad Friday night into Saturday and Sunday.

AIRPORT: The light snow will likely bring some flight delays at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, but the airport should remain open.

POWER: With light snow like this, no major power outages are expected. The outage this morning over West Alabama was related to a transmission line problem. I spoke with someone from Alabama Power on the phone this morning, and they expect to have plenty of capacity to meet the heating demands during the snow and the following Arctic blast.

SCHOOLS? Looks like most school systems are closing for tomorrow… see all of the school information on the 33/40 site here.

ADVISORIES: The NWS offices in Birmingham and Huntsville have issued a winter weather advisory for the northern half of Alabama. The NWS in Jackson has a winter storm watch up for the Golden Triangle/U.S. 82 corridor of East Mississippi where snow amounts should be highest. This matches our ongoing forecast nicely.

BITTER COLD: Friday and the weekend will be brutally cold. Highs in the 20s with single digit wind chill values Friday and Saturday, and lows in the 8 to 12 degree range both Saturday and Sunday morning. If we have a decent snow cover, then those values could be lower. We reach the mid 30s Sunday afternoon, but many places will stay below freezing. In fact, looks like 80 to 90 consecutive hours of sub-freezing temperatures are likely for much of North Alabama from Thursday evening through Monday morning of next week. Keep all necessary cold weather precautions going for sure. Bring in the brass monkey.

NEXT WEEK: We begin to moderate Monday with a high in the 40s. The 12Z GFS shows a chance of some light rain or light snow Wednesday of next week, with a stronger system January 15. We will deal with all of that later, but the cold and unsettled weather pattern will continue with the El Nino enhanced southern storm track, and a strongly negative Arctic Oscillation.

LIVE CHAT: We are now offering a real time chat here on the blog… open blog comments will stay in place, of course, but this will allow a more immediate method of communication for weather geeks. We do have moderators posted over there, so be sure and play nice. Members of our weather team will be there from time to time to answer questions; we will post those times we are available here on the blog.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left.

FOLLOW ALONG: Here are our weather team Twitter accounts….

We will keep the blog updated with fresh information through the night; the next Weather Xtreme video will be posted by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow. STAY WARM!

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