The Tuesday morning edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes:
As I write this update thunderstorms have crossed into West Alabama; NWS Jackson had issued tornado warnings for Lauderdale and Kemper counties, just across the state line, but these storms are moving into a stable airmass, and they are elevated, so no major severe weather problems are expected here during the next few hours.
Looks like another significant pre-dawn tornado down in Louisiana… here is the storm report from NWS LIX:
0902 WESTWEGO JEFFERSON LA 2990 9014 HEAVY DAMAGES TO STRUCTURES REPORTED. MOBILE HOMES OVERTURNED. POSSIBLE INJURIES BUT UNKNOWN NUMBER. (LIX)
That doesn’t sound good; yet another reminder we have to get a NOAA Weather Radio in every home in tornado prone areas (scroll down and read the post from about 10:00 last night).
ALABAMA TODAY: The actual surface cold front is still well to the west; a little west of the Mississippi River. The ongoing batch of rain and storms should slowly fizzle out in coming hours, and we expect a second line to form along the front by late morning over Mississippi. This line will sweep through Alabama during the afternoon hours; at this point it looks like the best chance of severe weather will be from about 1:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m…. mainly along and south of I-20. The best instabilities will be over the southern half of the state, south of U.S. 80, and that is where we believe the greatest tornado threat will be. For the I-20 corridor (Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Anniston)… the greatest threat will be from large hail and damaging winds, but with high 0 to 1 km helicity we can’t rule out an isolated tornado this far north.
Again, this is a good day to be close to a reliable source of severe weather information in the event additional watches and warnings are needed.
The storms will end from west to east this evening.
BACK INTO THE DEEP FREEZE: Another Arctic blast arrives after midnight, and we will stay in the 30s all day tomorrow with an icy north wind, along with wind chill values below freezing all day. Thursday will be even colder; Birmingham will have a hard time getting above freezing, and Huntsville will remain in the 20s all day. Even the most conservative forecasters, you know, the ones that always forecast highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s beyond day one, have to agree with us now. This will most likely be the coldest air we have seen so far this winter, and Friday morning should feature lows between 12 and 17 degrees. The colder valleys over North Alabama might even see single digit temperatures.
SATURDAY SNOW? A really good looking Alberta Clipper will move through here over the weekend, and should bring light snow to North Alabama Saturday and Saturday night. At this point, the best chance of good, accumulating snow will along and north of U.S. 278, or north of a line from Hamilton to Cullman to Gadsden. In that part of Alabama 1 to 2 inches will be possible, but the ground might become white as far south as Birmingham. These Clipper systems don’t have much moisture to work with, but the GFS continues to show very vigorous energy involved. We will be much more confident in the details of this system once we get today’s big storm out of the way. One way or another, the weekend will be cold.
NEXT WEEK: We begin to warm up again early next week, and the GFS hints at some rain moving in here on Tuesday.
BIG MESS UP NORTH: Needless to say, the storm that is bringing the severe weather weather threat to Alabama today is producing serious winter storm conditions up north; watch the video for more details. Highlights include a blizzard warning for central Illinois and Indiana, and an ice storm warning for parts of West Virginia and Virginia; this thing could really be ugly for Washington, DC (ICE).
STORM ALERT 2007: Don’t forget we are coming to Jasper this week; we will be at the CHS building in downtown Jasper Thursday at 7:00 for our annual severe weather awareness show. We have free t-shirts for the first 500, and we will also be giving away 20 NOAA Weather Radio receivers.
WEATHER PARTY: Check our sister site for the latest weather news around the nation.
We will keep fresh updates coming through the day here on the blog, so stay tuned….
