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Dry and cool weather headlines our forecast today; a partly sunny sky with a high around 60 in most spots. To the west, another major winter storm unfolds for the Southern Plains; winter storm warnings are up for a pretty good part of Oklahoma and Kansas, where snow will fall on top of the ice pack. What a week for those folks.
THE WEEKEND: The big storm to the west should bring around 1/2 inch of rain to the northern half of the state over the weekend; it still looks like the main window for rain around here will come from around 4:00 until 10:00 p.m. The heavier rain will be to the north; some communities up in the Tennessee Valley might get one inch. Some thunderstorms could be involved, especially south of Birmingham. There might even be a few severe storms down over the southern quarter of the state where the air will be more unstable.
SNOW FLAKES? The GFS still shows that the rain will taper off into snow flurries across North Alabama late tomorrow night into Sunday morning, and we will continue to mention that in the forecast. No big issue, and the best chance of snow flakes will be over Northeast Alabama. The ground is very warm, and those flakes will melt as they hit the surface.
Sunday will be a cold and blustery day; we will have a hard time reaching the low to mid 40s with a very brisk north wind. The clouds could very hang tough much of the day; where the clouds hang around folks might not get out of the 30s. And, we are still projecting lows in the mid 20s by daybreak Monday.
NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND: The first half of next week will be cool and dry. The 06Z GFS has come in a little faster with the system toward the end of the week; it shows the best rain coming Thursday afternoon and Thursday night, with clearing on Friday. One way or another, we have a chance at some beneficial rain over the latter half of next week.
The pattern still looks very active for the last 10 days of December, but every model run is different concerning the timing of the individual waves. Sure looks like we have a decent potential for three good rain events before the year is over, but even with that 2007 will be our driest year on record.
Check out the Weather Xtreme video and see how the 18Z GFS yesterday handled Christmas Day, just for fun. No way now to resolve the timing of the various weather events beyond seven days.
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.
WEATHER PARTY: Get all the latest weather news over on our sister site, WeatherParty.com. Be sure and register while you are there; you can submit stories and vote on them to determine what is published on the front page. This is a great way to find the latest weather-related news stories.
If you have time today, consider dropping a new, unwrapped toy by our Toys For Tots collection point, which has been set up at the old Galleria 10 Movie Theater parking lot at the Riverchase Galleria… we will be out there all day waiting for you. We need about 10,000 toys to fill all of the requests… you can also drop a toy by any new car dealer in the Birmingham area. I will be out there tonight doing the weather live at 5:00 and 6:00.
Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 3:30 this afternoon… enjoy the day!
