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SERIOUS COLD: Welcome to the frozen tundra of Alabama. Some quick 5:00 reports around the state…
Birmingham 19 (wind chill index 9)
Shelby County Airport 19 (wind chill index 11)
Haleyville 14 (wind chill index 5)
We will struggle to rise above freezing today despite a sunny sky; most places will see a high in the mid 30s, and the icy north wind will keep wind chill index values well below freezing most of the day. It will not be a good day to be outdoors.
TONIGHT: Tonight will be different in that it will be a radiational cooling night as the wind dies down. That means the colder air will sink down into the valleys and low spots; in those places lows will be in the 8 to 14 degree range, while the warmer ridgetops, in the inversion layer, will be in the 19 to 25 degree range. Most places will wind up somewhere between 14 and 19. At least the wind won’t be blowing to create those low wind chill values.
THE WARM-UP: We should rise into the mid 40s tomorrow as we begin to dig out of the deep freeze. We should note that Friday morning will be pretty cold with temperatures well down in the 20s, but the big warm-up begins Friday afternoon as we rise to near 60 degrees with a sunny sky.
The weekend looks great with partly to mostly sunny days, fair nights, and afternoon highs in the mid 60s. The GFS is now printing 68 for Birmingham on Sunday.
NEXT WEEK: Two short waves will eject out of the Southwest U.S…. the lead wave will weaken and pass north of Alabama; that might bring a few showers by Monday night or Tuesday, especially over the northwest part of the state. The second wave will be much stronger, and will bring our next significant rain event. The 06Z GFS shows that one in here on Wednesday of next week, and with good dynamic support and instability, strong to severe storms could become an issue. We will watch that closely in coming days. Colder air returns by the end of next week, but it does not look as cold as the air we are dealing with now.
I still think the rest of February will feature many weather changes… Arctic shots, a few mild days, some thunderstorms, and maybe a winter storm threat along the way. No dull moments.
STORM ALERT 2009: We are coming to Trussville tomorrow night… that is our only Birmingham metro show this year, so we hope to see many people there. We will be at the Trussville Civic Center at 7:00… the doors open at 5:00. You will get some cool stuff to take home, meet our entire weather team, and see some great Alabama weather stories. I hope you can join us!
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Today I will be doing a weather program at Briarwood Christian School… after that I will head into the office and the afternoon edition of the Weather Xtreme video should be posted by 3:30. Enjoy the day!
