The Tuesday morning Weather Xtreme Video is available in the player below, and on iTunes:
A quick peek around Alabama at dawn shows temperatures generally in the 15 to 25 degree range, right as forecast. Coldest spot on the “official” temperature round-up is Gadsden with 19 degrees. We will have a full list of lows a little later this morning.
TODAY/TOMORROW: A brief warming trend for the next 36 hours is ahead; look for mid to mid 50s today, and upper 50s tomorrow. West Alabama communities should reach the low 60s tomorrow with a good supply of sunshine.
ANOTHER COLD BLAST: More cold air coming off the frozen tundra of the central and northern U.S. rolls in here Thursday. In fact, Thursday looks alot like yesterday with a strong north wind and temperatures struggling to reach the low 40s. Wind chill values much of the day Thursday could very well be below freezing.
By Friday morning, look for another hard freeze. The latest GFS MOS is coming in with 17 for Birmingham Friday morning; that might be a little aggressive, but looks like we see a range between 14 and 24 early Friday; 14 for the coldest valleys and 24 for the ridgetops.
WEEKEND PEEK: We will moderate a good bit over the weekend, with afternoon highs in the 58 to 62 degree range. The weather will remain dry Saturday and Sunday.
NEXT WEEK: At this point we don’t see any Arctic intrusions next week, so the weather should be milder. One wave will bring a chance of rain at mid-week on Wednesday and Wednesday night (December 13); the latest GFS (06Z) dampens that wave out and develops a stronger one to the west that rolls in here around December 15 with showers and strong thunderstorms.
LONG (HO HO HO) RANGE: Don’t want to even guess right now… but the NAO remains neutral to positive through late December, so any cold air shots over the latter half of the month shouldn’t last long, and probably won’t be too severe. There is a decent chance this will be the coldest week of the month. But, as you all know, any Christmas forecast or outlook is pure voodoo at this point.
I had a great time yesterday speaking to the ladies Christmas lunch at Jasper’s First United Methodist Church; what a great crowd and some really good food. Then, it was on to Gadsden for their Christmas parade last night. Another great crowd in sub-freezing temperatures. I also enjoyed the ride from Jasper to Gadsden; going through places like Boldo, Bremen, Dodge City, Good Hope, Holly Pond, Snead, and Walnut Grove. I drove right past our SKYCAM site in Cullman high atop the Water Treatment facility just east of town on U.S. 278.
My schedule from my pals over in the news department has me in Tuscaloosa tonight for their Christmas parade, but that was actually last night (I hear it was a great parade as well)… I thought something was wrong because Tuscaloosa has had their Christmas parade on Monday nights as long as I can remember (and I have been around since the Civil War, you know). So… I get the idea I will be back on a regular schedule today, so the blog and video products should be up on time this afternoon.
Enjoy your Tuesday!
