Alabama 811 | Know What's Below.

Winter Weather Awareness Week

| November 12, 2012 @ 6:20 am

In order to draw attention to upcoming weather threats, the National Weather Service (NWS) offices around the country conduct awareness week campaigns aimed at educating people on how to be prepared for those threats. This week is Winter Weather Awareness Week in Alabama, and the NWS in Birmingham will be issuing special releases each day intended to help you be better prepared should we have an episode of winter weather. Here is the release for today.

-Brian-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
501 AM CST MON NOV 12 2012

...WINTER WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK STARTS TODAY IN ALABAMA...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, AND THE ALABAMA STATE EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT AGENCY HAVE PROCLAIMED THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 12TH
THROUGH NOVEMBER 16TH, 2012 AS WINTER WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK IN
ALABAMA. WINTER WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK HIGHLIGHTS THE NEED FOR
BEING PREPARED FOR THE POTENTIAL DANGERS OF A SEVERE WINTER
WEATHER EPISODE.

...WINTER WEATHER ACROSS CENTRAL ALABAMA...

ALABAMA IS NO STRANGER TO WINTERS DEADLY GRIP. HISTORICALLY, SOME
OF THE MOST SEVERE WEATHER CONDITIONS WHICH CAN AFFECT SOME OR
ALL OF THE STATE HAVE COME IN THE WINTER. EACH YEAR WEATHER
PATTERNS BRING SEVERAL WINTER WEATHER THREATS TO THE STATE
INCLUDING EXTREME COLD, SNOW, SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN.

...WINTER WEATHER HISTORY IN CENTRAL ALABAMA...

ON FEBRUARY 9TH, 2011, SNOWFALL TOTALS FROM A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM
FROM THE GULF OF MEXICO RANGED FROM 4 INCHES IN LAMAR COUNTY TO
TRACE AMOUNTS ALONG THE INTERSTATE 85 CORRIDOR.

BY DAYBREAK ON MONDAY, JANUARY 10TH, 2011, AREAS NORTH OF
INTERSTATE 20 REPORTED ANYWHERE FROM 1 TO 14 INCHES OF SNOW WITH
THE HEAVIEST TOTALS NEAR THE ALABAMA-TENNESSEE STATE LINE. ICE
REPORTS WERE AS HIGH AS 0.50 INCHES IN MULTIPLE COUNTIES SOUTH OF
INTERSTATE 20.

SNOWFALL BLANKETED MUCH OF THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL ALABAMA ON
DECEMBER 25TH, 2010. SOME LOCATIONS SAW THE FIRST WHITE CHRISTMAS
ON RECORD, WHILE OTHERS JUST MISSED OUT.

ON MARCH 1, 2009, SNOW BLANKETED CENTRAL ALABAMA. CITIZENS AS FAR
SOUTH AS MONTGOMERY SAW AT LEAST A DUSTING, BUT MOST EVERYONE SAW
SNOWFALL TOTALS BETWEEN 1 AND 5 INCHES, WITH THE HEAVIEST TOTALS
AROUND AUBURN, WHERE LEE COUNTY SAW OVER 5 INCHES OF SNOW.

ALMOST THREE YEARS AGO ON JANUARY 19, 2008, SNOW FELL ACROSS
CENTRAL ALABAMA. AREAS FROM DEMOPOLIS TO SELMA TO CLANTON RECEIVED
2 TO 5 INCHES OF SNOW. AREAS AS FAR NORTH AS BIRMINGHAM AND
SOUTH TO MONTGOMERY RECEIVED UP TO ONE INCH.

BACK ON JANUARY 28-29, 2005, AN ICE STORM OCCURRED ACROSS EASTERN
ALABAMA. ICE ACCUMULATIONS OF ONE QUARTER TO ONE INCH CAUSED
SIGNIFICANT ICING AND WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES ACROSS RANDOLPH AND
CHAMBERS COUNTIES. MUCH OF THE REMAINDER OF EAST ALABAMA RECEIVED
LIGHTER ICE AMOUNTS WHERE POWER OUTAGES WERE LESS WIDESPREAD AND
DAMAGE TO TREES WAS RELATIVELY MINOR. LIGHT ICING WAS REPORTED AS
FAR WEST AS BIRMINGHAM AND MONTGOMERY.

IN MARCH 1993, THE STORM OF THE CENTURY OCCURRED. THE STATE WAS
HELD IN THE GRIP OF RECORD SNOWFALL WITH MORE THAN A FOOT OF SNOW
ACROSS A WIDE PORTION OF CENTRAL ALABAMA. THE SNOW COMPLETELY
PARALYZED A LARGE SECTION OF THE STATE. STRONG WINDS ACCOMPANIED
THE HEAVY WET SNOW AND THIS COMBINATION DOWNED NUMEROUS TREES AND
POWER LINES. MANY PEOPLE WERE LEFT WITHOUT ELECTRICAL SERVICE FOR
SEVERAL DAYS. HEAVY SNOWFALL ON MARCH 12 AND 13 WAS FOLLOWED BY A
RECORD BREAKING COLD SNAP. NEARLY ALL ACTIVITY CAME TO A COMPLETE
HALT IN AND AROUND BIRMINGHAM, ANNISTON, AND TUSCALOOSA FOR TWO
FULL DAYS UNTIL THE SNOW BEGAN TO MELT AND EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT
COULD BEGIN TO CLEAR ROADWAYS. WHEN THE WINTRY PRECIPITATION AND
COLD CONDITIONS SUBSIDED, 14 PEOPLE HAD DIED AND MANY MORE WERE
INJURED. PROPERTY DAMAGE EXCEEDED 50 MILLION DOLLARS AND EVERY
SQUARE INCH OF ALABAMA HAD EXPERIENCED MEASURABLE SNOW. DURING THE
WINTER STORM, THE AMERICAN RED CROSS IN ALABAMA SHELTERED OVER
12000 PEOPLE IN 108 FACILITIES AND SERVED OVER 36000 MEALS.

AN OUTBREAK OF SEVERE COLD WEATHER OCCURRED DECEMBER 22 THROUGH
25, 1989, KILLING FIVE PEOPLE IN ALABAMA. LOW TEMPERATURES FOR TWO
CONSECUTIVE NIGHTS DROPPED INTO THE 0 TO MINUS 5 DEGREE RANGE OVER
THE NORTHERN THIRD OF ALABAMA AND INTO THE SINGLE DIGITS ALL THE
WAY TO THE GULF COAST. DAYTIME HIGH TEMPERATURES REACHED ONLY INTO
THE TEENS. BRISK NORTHERLY WINDS CREATED WIND CHILLS AS LOW AS
MINUS 15 TO MINUS 35 DEGREES BELOW ZERO OVER NORTH ALABAMA AND
ZERO TO MINUS 15 IN SOUTH ALABAMA.

AT LEAST 5 PEOPLE PERISHED IN THE EXTREME COLD OF JANUARY 19
THROUGH 22, 1985. THIS EVENT RE-ESTABLISHED LOW TEMPERATURE
RECORDS OVER MUCH OF ALABAMA. THIS STORM BROUGHT ICE ACCUMULATIONS
OF UP TO ONE FOOT AS REPORTED IN LAUDERDALE COUNTY. BRIDGES WERE
COATED WITH ICE WELL INTO CENTRAL ALABAMA AND FOUR PEOPLE WERE
KILLED IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS ON ICY ROADS.

ONE OF THE MOST TRAGIC OUTBREAKS OF COLD WEATHER IN ALABAMA
HISTORY OCCURRED JANUARY 10 THROUGH 18, 1982. TWENTY PEOPLE DIED
AND 300 WERE INJURED DURING THIS EXTREMELY COLD WEATHER. SIXTEEN
THOUSAND PEOPLE WERE FORCED INTO EMERGENCY SHELTERS AND STORM
DAMAGE TOTALED SOME 78 MILLION DOLLARS.

THE ARCTIC OUTBREAK OF DECEMBER 19 THROUGH 21, 1981, TOOK THE
LIVES OF AT LEAST TWO PEOPLE IN UNHEATED HOMES AND AT LEAST 17
PEOPLE WERE INJURED BY SLIPPING AND FALLING ON ICE.

TUESDAY'S WINTER WEATHER TOPIC WILL BE WINTER WEATHER TERMINOLOGY.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT

    JIM STEFKOVICH
    METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE
    NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
    BIRMINGHAM, AL
    205-664-3010

OR VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/BMX

$$

Category: Alabama's Weather

About the Author ()

Brian Peters is one of the television meteorologists at ABC3340 in Birmingham and a retired NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist. He handles the weekend Weather Xtreme Videos and forecast discussion and is the Webmaster for the popular WeatherBrains podcast.

Comments are closed.