Snow Showers To The Northwest

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FROM MT. CHEAHA: Thought I would pass along this note from the lodge manager, Tammy Power… up at Cheaha State Park, south of Anniston:

“As you can see we are still below freezing. The web cam you might can turn toward talladega that road is still a sheet of ice from friday in the curves and had not opened as of yet. The top part from the back of the restaurant if you turn the cam to the back of the hotel is blocked with a truck if you can see that. This part has not thawed since Friday. Now both area’s have ice, snow and the rain that turned to ice on them…..

On the Cleburne Clay side of the mountain hwy 281 is spotted with black ice but can travel we are not sure if we will open yet due to the black ice on the road and in the parking lots. We are trying to get a crew to work on these…By this I mean us. Like you I got a break and went home Sat. night came back last night. Good thing since it was my 22nd ann. ! Anyway I hope to update you more soon but to open the top will take some warm temp. That I just do not see and a bunch of it…… At the best we hope to get the hotel and the restaurant open. I will let you know on this soon I hope.”

You can view our Cheaha SKYCAM here anytime…

RIGHT NOW: Clouds persist over the northern third of Alabama with temperatures only in the upper 20s. To the south, sunshine at Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Anniston has pushed temperatures into the mid 30s.

TO THE NORTHWEST: Snow showers continue over North Mississippi and West Tennessee; this convection is due to very cold air aloft (500 mb temps at or colder than -30 C), which makes the air unstable much like a summer afternoon. Snow accumulation has ranged up to 1 inch under the heavier snow showers, but some spots have not seen a flake. Looks like the best chance of snow showers this evening in Alabama will be north of a line from Millport to Jasper to Cullman to Fort Payne. Not sure we see anything really significant as far south as I-20, but we will keep an eye on radar trends.

STILL COLD: We stay cold through tomorrow. We drop into the low 20s by daybreak tomorrow, with a high close to 40 tomorrow, which should feature a mix of sun and clouds.

WARMER LATER THIS WEEK: Look for a welcomed warming trend Wednesday through Friday, with a pretty decent amount of sunshine each day. The 12Z GFS is printing 62 here on Friday, which seems too warm, but there is a good chance we rise into the mid to upper 50s.

WHAT ABOUT THE WEEKEND: Looks like we will have some risk of light rain from about midnight Friday night through 12:00 noon Saturday with an impulse flying through the zonal flow across the southern states. Rain amounts should 1/2″ or less, and Sunday still looks dry. Highs over the weekend should be in the 50s as the cold air retreats for now.

NEXT WEEK: Another impulse will bring a chance of rain Monday of next week, but in this flow timing can be challenging. No sign of any really cold air over the weekend into early next week.

LONG RANGE: The Arctic Oscillation remains strongly negative through the rest of the month, so expect more cold air in the Feb. 22-28 time frame. And, the southern stream remains active, so times will most likely remain eventful in the weather office. See the Weather Xtreme video for details.

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