The Monday morning Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes. Remember, the load times for the videos weekdays are 7:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m…
WARMER DAYS: Thanks to an upper air pattern change, our weather will be warmer this week not only here in Alabama, but across much of the nation. The “Gates to the Yukon” have been closed for now, so looks like we will be up in the 60s on a daily basis this week. In fact, the NAO remains neutral to positive through Christmas, so any cold snaps should be short and tame between now and then. And yes, the prospect of a “White Christmas” looks dim for the Deep South. Remember, we have never had one here in the Birmingham metro area in the classic sense, and weather records go back to the 1880s, so one should never really expect one. But, you can sure dream, just like Bing sings.
NEXT RAIN: A pretty decent little short wave will bring rain back to Alabama tomorrow and tomorrow night. Looks like the best chance of rain will be from about 12 Noon tomorrow through 3:00 a.m. Wednesday. The 06Z GFS suggests rain could move into West Alabama Tuesday morning, however. We might have a little thunder involved, but we don’t expect any severe weather since the air will be relatively stable, and wind fields aren’t too impressive. Rainfall amounts of one-half inch can be expected.
REST OF THE WEEK: Any showers should end very early Wednesday morning, and the sun should be back out by midday Wednesday. Lots of flipping and flopping with model output on the second shot wave on Thursday, but the last two GFS runs have been dry, so we will not mention any chance of rain Thursday or Friday. Temperatures will remain pretty mild, with highs in the 60s all week. We do note the GFS develops an interesting storm in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of the week, which is headed for the Florida peninsula this weekend. All of that will remain south of here.
LONG RANGE: The 06Z GFS suggests cool and dry weather on Christmas Day, with temperatures near normal. The weather looks seasonally cold up north at Christmas. Of course, this is all voodoo so far in advance, but everyone is asking. Watch the video today and you will see the GFS is trending toward a negative NAO at the end of December, which might herald a return to much colder weather by the end of the month. Stay tuned…
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I sure had a wonderful time down in Linden Friday night; I was the Grand Marshall of their Christmas parade. My friend and associate Don Dailey from WZZK radio was the emcee for the evening; Don is from Linden and is a big time hometown hero. I will write about the trip down later today and will post it here on the blog this evening. I didn’t get any pictures of the parade since I was slightly busy (!), but I did take some shots on the roads less traveled.
I will be on the road today to Northwest Alabama, I will be speaking at Hamilton Elementary School in Marion County late this morning. Jim Stefkovich, the Meteorologist-In-Charge of the National Weather Service here in Birmingham, will be making the trip with me, and I fully expect to see Marion County EMA director Matt McCracken at some point while we are there. I have been doing weather programs for Yvonne Ray and her students at Hamilton for many years, and I always enjoy the trip.
I should have the afternoon Weather Xtreme Video posted on time this afternoon by 3:30… but it might be a few minutes late with the long road trip. Have a wonderful Monday!
