Fun And Games Later This Week?

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes…

STORMY TIMES OVER: The overnight thunderstorm is winding down this morning; sounds like the most serious damage was in Eutaw, where a number of homes received serious damage around 1:20 this morning. Two homes lost their roof on Vaughn Street; one home was destroyed and nine homes had damage on Boligee Street. Damage was also reported in North Tuscaloosa County near Samantha; a church was damaged there and a tree fell onto a vehicle. Otherwise, the state escaped serious damage thankfully.

TODAY: A big change to colder headlines our forecast today. Temperatures will drop from the 60s into the 40s this morning… in fact our SKYCAM at Hamilton is showing 49 degrees as I write this at 5:30, while Birmingham is still in the low 60s. Everyone should be in the 40s by mid to late morning, and we will hover between 43 and 49 degrees this afternoon. Clouds will linger much of the state, and there might even be a few snow flakes over the Tennessee Valley as the big upper low passes through. The sky will clear tonight, and we will close to freezing by early tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow looks like a nice early March day, with ample sunshine and a high in the upper 50s.

MARCH SNOW FOR ALABAMA? Look like fun and games for the weather office late this week. A cold front will pass through Alabama Thursday night, bringing the risk of a few showers. Then, in response to a deep upper trough to the west, a wave of low pressure will form on the front Friday. The wave will move from the northern Gulf of Mexico over to a point near Savannah, Georgia, and will bring a chance of rain to parts of Alabama Friday. Models are suggesting the possibility of some snow over North Alabama at some point Friday or Friday night.

The low is moving along a favored track for snow in Alabama; but we all know how tricky this can be. Forecasting snow in Alabama is a very dangerous game, especially late in the season like this. But, it sure can happen in March (even April!), and I really think we need to get a few model runs in the house (and a few hours of sleep) before we get too excited about this. With surface temperatures above freezing and relatively warm top soil, it is hard to get too excited about accumulating snow for now. But, it is not totally out of the question for some light accumulation somewhere across North Alabama. Stay tuned….

WEEKEND COLD SHOT: Much colder air blows in here Friday night and Saturday. Saturday will be a cold and blustery day, with temperatures struggling to reach the low 40s and a gusty north wind. We should be below freezing by early Sunday, but a warming trend begins Sunday afternoon with ample sunshine. The latest GFS MOS shows 59 for Birmingham Sunday afternoon, which looks pretty good to us (although the MOS numbers are way too warm for Friday and Saturday).

For now our weather looks relatively benign early next week, which means we might actually make it through a seven day period with no severe weather threat. That is a good thing.

WEATHER BRAINS: We did not get to record a new WeatherBrains episode last night due to weather issues… we will try it again tonight. You can still, of course, listen to last week’s show on the player on the left sidebar of the blog.

SPECIAL ABC 33/40 NOAA WEATHER RADIO OFFER: You can purchase a top of the line Midland NOAA Weather Radio at any Handy TV location in this part of Alabama for only $29.95. These receivers have the new digital technology that allows you to choose the counties for which the alarm sounds. Get more information here.

Today I will be speaking at South Shades Crest Elementary School… then I will be back in the office and the afternoon Weather Xtreme video should be posted by 3:30 or so. A big thanks to Ashley Brand, J.B. Elliott, Brian Peters, and Tim Coleman for keeping the weather office staffed during the pre-dawn hours!

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