This is one of those days in which the temperature is not following the norm for diurnal change! The temperature at midnight at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport was 57 which is going to end up as the high for the day. But as of 1 pm, the temperature at fallen steadily to 39 degrees – definitely going the wrong direction.
So what is our coldest Christmas in Birmingham – or Central Alabama? It appears from the climatological records for Birmingham that the coldest Christmas Day was 18 degrees in 1983 – a record that is likely to stand for a long time. The second coldest day was in 29 in 1985. Rounding out the coldest six Christmases were 31 in 1924 and 35 in 1980, 1989, and 1918.
By the way, December 25, 1983, also recorded a low of 2! Just thinking about that makes me feel much warmer! NOT ! ! !
Looking upstream from Central Alabama, it doesn’t appear likely that we will see the temperature rise more than a degree or two until we bottom out tomorrow morning and some sunshine reverses today’s trend.
-Brian-
