Wild Ride Beginning

The latest edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme Video is available in the player below and on iTunes.

The train of waves at 500 millibars begins NOW!! And that train of waves will roll along through all of next week, so expect our weather pattern to be active and changeable. Fasten your seat belt and enjoy the ride.

Winter officially began at 12:08 am CST – see Bill’s post below for the details. And with the arrival of winter comes a wedge. We’re going to see a noticeable temperature gradient across the state today as a result of the cold air damming. At this writing readings ranged from the lower 40s along the Georgia-Alabama border to the lower 50s along the Mississippi-Alabama border. And clouds were prevalent, too, meaning we probably won’t be quite as warm today as we were yesterday.

The big trough off to the west is coming our way and should drag a cold front through the state by mid-day Sunday. This should bring an excellent chance for rain to the area primarily during the nighttime hours. However, once again the system will be zipping through quickly which will result in somewhat limited rainfall amounts. I expect most locations to see one quarter to one half inch of rain. It’s possible that some spots might see slightly higher amounts with some of the strong storms, but with as dry as we are we will take whatever nature brings our way.

The rain should be out of Central Alabama by noon-ish and I would expect to see a fairly rapidly clearing behind the front with colder air rolling into the area. Sunday will be another one of those days where temperatures struggle to rise much.

Monday will begin chilly with lows below freezing, but it should be dry. Another short wave zips through early Christmas morning promising some clouds and perhaps a little light rain. But again it should be quick so the rain should be gone by afternoon so the kids can get outside to play with any new toys. And Christmas day should see temperatures just about where we would expect for late December with highs 55 to 58.

The wave train just keeps on rolling with closely packed short waves through the end of Christmas week. This means another shot at rain on the 26th and again on the 28th. A strong ridge over the Bahamas, Eastern Cuba, and Hispaniola suggests nudging the overall pattern a trifle north of us. This could mean that fronts begin stalling out somewhere nearby. The current GFS model run suggests that it would be along the Gulf coast. But another strong trough on the 30th brings another round of rain.

As we venture into voodoo land, the GFS is slowing down the pattern with a slight shift of the main westerlies a bit northward. It still means a shot of rain around the first. And another strong trough around the 6th suggests a wet pattern. But we’ve got a bunch of systems to deal with before all of that happens.

Thanks for tuning in to the Weather Xtreme Video. I’ll have another one posted around 8 tomorrow morning. I’ll be filling in for Ashley tonight on ABC 3340 so I hope you can tune in. Have a great weekend. God bless.

-Brian-

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