The Saturday edition of the Weather Xtreme video is available on the player below, and on iTunes:
Brrrrrrrrrrr – it’s another cold start to the day for Central Alabama with temperatures very close to the chill we saw yesterday. And maybe even a degree or two colder. My readings in Helena were 18 yesterday morning but 17 this morning, so pretty similar. The good news is that it looks like this is the last really cold day for at least a week or so. This is the kind of cold that can put a real snap in your step when you run out to get the paper or put the mail in the mailbox!!
But it does look like this Arctic air will be moderating as we see temperatures climb back toward early December normals. The large surface high pressure system that is firmly planted over the southeast US will gradually migrate eastward today and Sunday. Afternoon highs should climb into the upper 40s and lower 50s today and well into the 50s Sunday. By Monday, an upper level trough begins to approach the Central US while the surface high moves east enough to see Gulf moisture begin to return into Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri.
The trough and the next cold front are slow to move into the Southeast US, so I don’t expect to see the next cold front – cool when compared to the last cold front – approaches on Tuesday. If the GFS is correct, we will see good rain chances by Tuesday evening with the bulk of the rain east of Central Alabama by mid-day on Wednesday. The air behind this front will be of Pacific origin, so we will see a slight drop back in temperatures but nothing as dramatic as the Arctic air we’ve seen for the last couple of days.
A secondary upper trough will complicate the weather pattern on Thursday, however, I believe the first system will have wrung out all the moisture, so the secondary system should be dry with only some clouds. By Saturday, an upper ridge will bring dry and relatively pleasant weather with temperatures near seasonal normals with lows around 35 to 40 and highs around 60 or so.
Trolling out into the longer range progs is interesting today – out there in voodoo land as James calls it. The GFS is forecasting a very sharp weather pattern around December 19th. In fact, when I took my first look at the charts, I was rather shocked at the magnitude and sharpness of the ridge and trough – it just looked funny – not a good confidence builder, so my faith in it is not high. But the pattern evolves with another strong storm system that could bring another shot of cold weather and snow to the mid-section of the country just before Christmas. By Christmas eve, though, the pattern has changed again with the main westerly storm track north of the southern US and bringing Alabama back to a milder pattern. Only time will tell.
Enjoyed my time yesterday with the third graders, 13 classes of them, at Valley Intermediate School in Pelham. They were a wonderful group of listeners – a tough task on a Friday afternoon. And I even ran into one of them at the Pelham Wal-Mart last night who recognized me from the school visit earlier in the day.
I hope that you have a great Saturday. Stay warm.
-Brian-
