The Saturday edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme Video is available in the player below, and on iTunes:
Central Alabama awoke to clouds this morning along with cold temperatures. Readings at day break today were generally in the 20s with an east-to-west gradient with colder values across East Central Alabama. Some people even reported snow flurries this morning with radar showing some patches of flurries and light snow across northern Alabama from Hamilton to Gadsden. So the clipper has arrived, but is fairly typical, it just hasn’t brought enough moisture with it to result in any kind of significant snow event. But even a flurries event is nice to see from time-to-time.
Today will also be windy. If your activities take you outside, be sure to be aware of the wind which will be in the 15 to 25 mph range with gusts to 30 mph. The wind will make it feel extra cold out there even as temperatures climb into the 40s.
By Tuesday we should see a nice warm-up. The next system which looked pretty potent on the model run yesterday afternoon has been down played by the latest GFS model and others. It appears that we’ll see a split flow with a fast moving short wave moving across the Great Lakes and New England while a weakening trough moves across northern Mexico and South Texas. This weak disturbance could still generate some strong thunderstorms for Southeast Texas and South Louisiana but the latest model guidance is suggesting a weaker event.
A cold front comes through here on Tuesday and early Wednesday bringing us an excellent chance for rain. Rainfall amounts could be fairly widespread with amounts one half to one inch. Then we get a couple of dry days before the next system comes into the picture for the weekend.
As the surface high slides off to our east, moisture returns along with a strong trough aloft which is forecast to become negatively tilted by Saturday. A strong surface low will move from western Kansas on Friday to near St. Louis on Saturday with a cold front stretching southward across the lower Mississippi River valley. This could be setting the stage for a severe weather event, so it will be closely watched. That front moves out of Alabama by early Sunday but wrap around moisture will keep it cloudy with some lingering rain. Colder weather comes back once again Sunday and Monday.
Trolling out to voodoo land the main message is a continuation of an active pattern. A series of storm systems moves across the Central US around the first of March and again around the fifth of March. It would appear that the really cold weather is over for the next couple of weeks. Sure, we’ll see some colder days but there is nothing in the current forecast output that suggests any extreme cold. So while active the pattern settles back into a typical Southeast US scenario with a cool down followed by a fairly rapid warm-up and then repeated.
Don’t forget that Storm Alert will be coming to Jacksonville next Thursday and Bessemer the 28th, so we hope you can join us for an informative program. All programs start at 7 pm with doors opening at 5 pm.
And I have been invited to be the speaker at a severe weather safety seminar in Helena put on by the CERT Team there. It will be next Tuesday at 7 pm in the Helena City Hall. Looking forward to talking about severe weather safety. The CERT Team will also be helping anyone who needs assistance with programming their NOAA Weather Radio. It should be a great evening talking about severe weather and developing safety plans that could serve you well when severe weather threatens. Hope to see you there.
I will have another Weather Xtreme Video tomorrow morning. Have a great weekend. Stay warm. And God bless.
-Brian-
