The Wednesday afternoon edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes:
One quick housekeeping note… we post many pictures from our viewers during times like these; if you are simply interested in our forecast discussions, use the categories on the left side of the blog… just click on “forecast discussion”, or whatever topic you are interested in.
Check out our Cheaha St. Park SKYCAM… the trees are snow covered. There are also some nice shots of Dugger Mountain, Alabama’s second highest peak, in a post below here on the blog showing white caps. The Cheaha SKYCAM, atop the restaurant at the park, is showing 29 degrees as I write this with a wind chill index of 17. But, at least the sun is shining now.
TONIGHT/TOMORROW/FRIDAY: Cold is the word. There will be a few cloudy periods tonight and tomorrow as some energy rotates through the big trough over the eastern half of the nation, but the chance of any significant snow is very small due to the dry air in place. I doubt if we can get out of the 30s tomorrow, and Friday morning will be very cold, especially if the wind can go calm. Most North Alabama communities will reach the teens, and if there is no wind some of the coldest valleys might even reach 8 or 9 degrees.
THE WEEKEND: No change in our thinking after looking at the 12Z models. The Clipper will bring some big time upward vertical motion in the atmosphere, and despite limited moisture, it looks like that part of Alabama north of U.S. 278 (north of a line from Hamilton to Cullman to Gadsden) could see 1 to 2 inches of snow. And, for the I-20 corridor (Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Anniston), some light accumulation is certainly possible. Probably one inch or less. Best chance of light snow will come Saturday afternoon into the nighttime hours. Some lingering flurries will be possible Sunday morning. Again, we stress this is no major winter storm, but it has the potential to be a real fun event for kids of all ages that like snow. Of course, we will fine tune the forecast as we get closer to the weekend.
NEXT WEEK: We begin to warm up next week, and the next significant storm system should arrive toward the latter half of the week, with some potential for strong storms. In the longer range, the GFS continues to advertise a couple of good systems during the latter half of the month that have severe weather written all over them. I still think that we will have occasional shots of very cold air through mid-March as much of the continent is covered by snow and ice. Looks like quite a roller coaster ride.
STORM ALERT 2007: We will be in Jasper tomorrow night at 7:00 at the CHS building… doors open at 5:00, and we have free t-shirts for the first 500 people. We sure hope to see you there.
NWS STORM SURVEYS: See the latest storm survey information from the National Weather Service here (from yesterday and last night’s storms)
WEATHER PARTY: A big batch of weather news on weatherparty.com. Much of the northeast is shut down by the big blizzard today… one that many up there will remember for a long time to come.
Will try to post more images here shortly… too much e-mail, too little time! I will have the next Weather Xtreme video ready by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.
