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RIGHT NOW: The sky has become cloudy across Alabama this afternoon, with cold air going nowhere. Temperatures remain well below model guidance, with upper 30s north of Birmingham, and generally low 40s along I-20. Tonight won’t be as cold as last night with the clouds in place.
POTENTIAL FOR SOME BRIDGE ICING TOMORROW MORNING: No real change in our thinking on tomorrow morning’s weather. Watch the Weather Xtreme video and you will see models have trended farther south with precipitation tomorrow morning, but whenever it begins I figure we will have some sleet involved as it falls through very dry air in the lower levels, and with evaporative cooling temperatures will trend down toward wet bulb values, and they will be in the 29 to 32 degree range for a while as the rain begins. This, of course, means a little freezing rain, and with the infrastructure rather cold, some patches of ice will likely form on bridges and overpasses.
As Dr. Tim says in his excellent post below, this is no major winter storm issue, but if you hit some ice and skid into a guard rail and wreck your nice vehicle, it becomes a big deal to you. Just take it very easy if you are driving tomorrow morning, and be aware bridges could be icy. All of our downtown interstate highways in Birmingham are elevated, and you really have to watch those bridges.
REST OF THE WEEKEND: Periods of rain will continue tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow night, and into Sunday morning. The NAM is now printing a whopping 1.95″ with this system, while the GFS is a bit drier with 1.40″. One way or another it will be a wet weekend, with one to two inches of rain possible statewide. We will begin to warm up Sunday with a high in the 50s.
NEXT WEEK: Monday will be much warmer; the GFS shows a high of 74 degrees now, and that will help to create some surface based instability. We will mention scattered showers Monday, followed by a heathy round of showers and thunderstorms late Monday night into Tuesday. We will have to consider mentioning a chance of severe thunderstorms with this wave based on the projected instability values, so stay tuned.
Dry and cold weather will be the story for the latter half of next week; for now Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday look dry.
CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE: See the Weather Xtreme video for more on the GFS ideas for Christmas, but conditions continue to look cold and unsettled for much of the nation as we approach December 25.
WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left.
I had a great time today visiting with the 7th graders at Helena Middle School; be looking for them on the Pepsi KIDCAM today at 5:00 on ABC 33/40 News… I will be live at Columbiana for a Christmas Tree lightning on the news at 5:00 and 6:00. Brian Peters will have the video updates over the weekend; my next Weather Xtreme video will be posted early Monday morning by 7:00. Enjoy the weekend!
