The Birth of a Low Pressure Area

Finally, it is on the playing field but a little baby. I am referring to the low pressure area that will eventually be a key part of our scary weekend wintry weather.

The low has just formed…and a little more to the south from where we expected. But that is not important. It does not even have any “weather” associated with it yet. That will change. From its birthplace, it will move eastward and should be centered along the lower Texas Coast by daybreak Sunday and then just off the Louisiana Coast by nightfall Sunday. By that time, precipitation will already be in progress over most of Alabama.

Back to our low. By daybreak Monday, the center should be over the North Gulf about 40 miles south of Gulf Shores and finally just off the coast of the Carolinas by Tuesday. These projections have been persistent all along. There is no wintry weather action with this low yet.

SPOT REPORTS
69 and clear, Brownsville, Tex., at the mouth of the Rio Grande
61 cloudy, Corpus Christi

Enough of that. It is an example of some spot reports we will post occasionally over the weekend so you can see the north and east progression of wintry weather.

SPOT REPORTS TO OUR NORTH
23 and light snow, Crossville, Tenn., on the Cumberland Plateau, visibility one mile
light snow also at Nashville Airport

This is a separate little weather system and there were snow showers and flurries in the mountains also, including these results:

…7 inches of new snow overnight on Mt. LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. They now have 15 inches of the ground.Their low temperature this morning was 1 above zero.
…one inch of new snow also overnight at Gatlinburg and Cades Cove.

FINAL NOTE: As others in our group have already mentioned, this upcoming winter storm will, in no way, compare to the “Blizzard of 93.” In that great storm, the snow depth reached 20 inches at Mountainboro located on US 431 as you climb Sand Mountain on the way from Gadaden toward Boaz and Albertville. NWS later received some reports of 15-foot drifts in NE Alabama. We may never see a storm like this again.

But who knows?

Not me!

Category: Alabama's Weather