The Wednesday afternoon edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and also on iTunes:
The leading edge of the coldest air of 2006 is moving into the Birmingham metro area right now. To the north, our SKYCAM site at Cullman is showing 38 degrees, a northwest wind averaging 27 mph, and a wind chill index of 27. To the south, the Demopolis SKYCAM is reporting 54 degrees with bright sunshine. Here at our Riverchase studio, near I-65 and Valleydale Road, we have 49 degrees now, a three degree drop in the last 20 minutes. Northwest winds will gust as high as 40 mph this evening, with higher gusts possible on the ridges. That will be a very icy wind.
BUNDLE UP: No real change in our thinking for the next 48 hours. We should be below freezing for about 14 hours tonight, roughly from 7:00 p.m. through 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. The average low should be 18, with a range from 15 to 20. Winds will continue through the night, so there won’t be much variation with elevation. In fact, ridges will be a little colder tonight and tomorrow.
Even with full sunshine tomorrow, we will have a hard time getting out of the 30s.
EARLY SATURDAY: Another hard freeze is ahead for Saturday morning; but there will be a huge range based on elevation thanks to the radiational cooling setup. Temperatures will range from around 12 in the coldest valleys in North Alabama, to around 32 on the mountaintops, especially above 1,500 feet. We will continue to use 20 in our forecast, which reflects an average figure for most residential areas.
Be sure and scroll down and read J.B.’s “Super Six” forecast for the high school football championship games to be played today through Saturday at Legion Field. COLD is the word. In fact, for the nighttime games tonight and tomorrow night some of the coldest high school football weather I can recall in the last 30 years.
WEEKEND WARM-UP: Temperatures will begin to moderate over the weekend, with mid 50s on Saturday and upper 50s Sunday. The weekend will be dry with a decent amount of sunshine both days.
NEXT WEEK: The weather next week will be milder, and rain will return to the state. The first round of rain will come Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. A few thunderstorms could be involved, but this doesn’t look like a severe weather setup. The latest GFS run (the 12Z run) has backed off on the rain with the next wave at the end of the week, but I think you have to mention at least a chance of getting wet with that system on Friday December 15.
LONG RANGE: The 12Z GFS carries us out to Christmas Eve Eve (December 23), and the model paints an interesting battle between a cold Polar trough over mid-America and a warm ridge over Florida in the December 19-21 time frame. This run keeps the coldest air north of Alabama, which makes sense with the NAO holding neutral to positive.
TORNADO IN LONDON: Read more on weatherparty.com, our sister site with the latest weather related news. Register and you can submit links and vote on them.
I will be heading down to the Bruno’s on Alabama 150 at South Shades Crest Road in Hoover shortly for some bagging duty; we are pitching in to help our “Hope for the Holidays” food drive; be watching at 5:00 and 6:00 on ABC 33/40 to learn more on how you can be involved. I think my associate Brian Peters will be there with me today… which means I can ask those in the store if they think he looks more like Col. Sanders or Santa Clause.
J.B. will keep you posted on the progress of the cold air; I will have my next Weather Xtreme video posted by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!
