The Monday morning edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available on the player below, and on iTunes:
The long awaited dose of cold air is getting very close. The surface front is within 40 miles of the Alabama border right now, and it should enter the northwest corner of the state later today. Ahead of the cold air, rain will become widespread across the state by mid to late afternoon and tonight. We don’t look for any severe weather problems tonight, and rainfall amounts of one-half to one inch can be expected. The rain will end from west to east tomorrow morning.
HOW COLD? Temperatures will begin to fall tonight, and at daybreak tomorrow morning I expect readings to vary from 28 at Muscle Shoals and Red Bay to around 40 at Ashland, Lineville, and Roanoke. There will be a considerable spread from northwest to southeast since the cold air advection process will be continuing. For the Birmingham metro; I figure we will be around 36 degrees at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. Temperatures will go nowhere; we should hover in the 35 to 39 degree range all day; with colder values over Northwest Alabama. For counties like Clay, Randolph, and Cleburne, temperatures will fall into the 30s during the day. An icy north wind will keep wind chill values at or below freezing much of the day. The change will be rather remarkable, especially with the recent warmth.
Looks like the ice threat for now in Alabama is minimal, but any lingering drizzle over Northwest Alabama will be problematic. Don’t think it will be a big issue; like we have stated here in recent days the change to cold is the big story.
As the sky clears tomorrow night, we will be very cold early Wednesday, with a low somewhere between 20 and 25 degrees. Wednesday should feature a decent amount of sunshine with a high somewhere in the low to mid 40s.
ANOTHER COLD AIR SHOT: A fresh supply of cold air arrives later in the week on Friday and Saturday. Again, the MOS numbers look way too warm. We will really struggle to reach the 40s on both of these days. Clouds should increase on Thursday ahead of this cold air shot, but for now the chance of any precipitation looks small.
WEEKEND PEEK: Cold and dry weather is the story for the weekend with temperatures well below normal… the high Saturday will be only around 40 degrees; we will be well down in the 20s early Sunday; some of the colder valleys will probably reach the teens.
LONG RANGE: Another big shot of cold air is due in here in the January 23-24 time frame, according to the GFS… the coldest air yet in this series if the model is correct. That one might get us well down in the teens. The pattern continues to look generally cold into early February, and with an active southern stream undercutting the polar vortex I will really be surprised if we get through the rest of the month without some kind of ice or snow threat. The pattern sure looks suspicious.
Get the latest news on the winter weather conditions west of the state on our sister site, WeatherParty.com. It has been a rough weekend from Texas to Missouri.
I will have the next Weather Xtreme video posted by 3:30 this afternoon…. enjoy the last mild day for a while!
