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At 3:00… Birmingham’s temperature was only 31 degrees with a northwest wind averaging 14 mph, gusting to 20 mph. The wind chill index is 21. Needless to say, when you are below freezing at 3:00 in the afternoon, you can expect a big time freeze once the sun goes down. Most of our Skywatchers across North Alabama are reporting that they have been below freezing all day as well.
J.B. Elliott is now forecasting an average low of 15 degrees early tomorrow (J.B. writes our daily public afternoon forecast; I write the morning forecast). I still think the actual range will be from 8 (in the coldest valleys) to 22 (on the ridge tops). One way or another, this should be our coldest night since January 7, 2004 when the low was 15 degrees.
Friday morning will feature another hard freeze, with an average low around 20, but teens are likely for the valleys.
You know the routine, check on elderly people you know that might not have adequate heating, and take care of the pets, plants, and pipes. It doesn’t get this cold in Alabama very often.
WEEKEND WARM-UP: Temperatures will recover to near 60 on Saturday, and into the mid 60s on Sunday as a southerly flow returns and the cold air moves well to the east. The weekend should be dry, although some clouds could begin showing up on Sunday.
NEXT WEEK: The 12Z run of the GFS shows our next good chance of showers and storms on Wednesday of next week with another sharp upper trough moving in from the west. It is hinting that we could see one inch of rain on Wednesday along with some risk of strong thunderstorms. Much colder air will be just west of here on Wednesday; the GFS shows Birmingham with rain and storms and temperatures around 60, while Memphis will be close to 30 with a chance of some light snow.
We will see some of that colder air by Thursday and Friday of next week, but it won’t be as cold as the airmass currently in place.
VENTURING INTO VOODOO LAND: The 12Z GFS shows a nice setup for the snow lovers; a deep surface low east of here around January 13 with cold air in place and a nice chance of snow for North Alabama. But, you know how it goes in voodoo land. I will say this is not a total outlier; we have seen previous runs with the same idea. Lets get the mid-week system next week out of here before we really deal with anything that happens January 13-14.
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We will keep you posted on the big freeze tonight… stay warm. The next Weather Xtreme video will be posted by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow…
