Wet Weather Is Our Story

Scroll down to the morning discussion and you can watch the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video for today… we are producing only one video per day as we are on a holiday schedule… we go back to two videos per day on Tuesday January 2.

WATCHING THE RADAR: So far the rain today has been light and spotty; amounts around the SKYCAM network are all under a tenth of an inch since midnight. I am watching the Gulf Shores SKYCAM as I write this and the rain is really coming down; the total down there as of 2:50 p.m. is 0.21″; most of that has fallen in the past 15 minutes.

HOW ABOUT THAT WEDGE: The ole wedge effect is up and running this afternoon; our SKYCAM site atop Mt. Cheaha is reporting a chilly 49 degrees right now with an east wind at 10 mph. Atlanta has a cool 51 degrees.

We still expect rain to increase in both intensity and areal coverage tonight as the upper trough approaches. We note a severe thunderstorm watch now up for the Texas coastal plain, but severe weather is not expected here due to limited instability. We do note that model rainfall forecasts have come down; the NAM/WRF is printing 0.59″ for Birmingham, while the GFS suggests we will receive 1.87″. Once again, the truth is probably somewhere between those two figures for most Alabama communities.

THE WEEKEND: The rain tapers off tomorrow afternoon, and Saturday still looks dry with a mix of sun and clouds and a high in the low 60s. Pretty nice weather for the Papajohns.com Bowl at Legion Field Saturday afternoon. Then, on Sunday, the next upper trough spins up a surface low in the northern Gulf of Mexico, which brings more rain to the state late Sunday afternoon and Sunday night. The 12Z run is considerably faster, and it hints most of the rain will come from about 12:00 Noon Sunday through Midnight Sunday night.

CHRISTMAS DAY: The air will be colder; looks like we will hold in the 40s all day Monday with a cool north breeze. Another deep upper impulse rolls through here Monday night, and there might be enough moisture to squeeze out a few snow flurries over Northeast Alabama, but the air looks very dry and significant precipitation isn’t likely.

Look for a light freeze both early Tuesday and Wednesday morning of next week. The next chance of rain will come around December 29-30, followed by a quick pop of pretty cold air over the weekend (December 30-31).

BLIZZARD OF 2006: The big blizzard is slowly winding down in Denver; see lots of news and interesting stuff over on weatherparty.com. I have some pictures from a reader I am about to post shortly… a truly amazing storm. DIA (Denver International Airport) won’t go into operation until sometime tomorrow evening. Air traffic is a mess around the nation due to this, needless to say…

I will have the next Weather Xtreme video posted by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning… look for the Colorado snow pictures here shortly…

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