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Heavy rain continues across the southeastern half of Alabama tonight. A flash flood watch continues for that area, including the following counties:
AUTAUGA…BARBOUR…BULLOCK…CALHOUN… CHAMBERS…CHILTON…CLAY…CLEBURNE… COOSA…DALLAS…ELMORE…LEE… LOWNDES…MACON…MONTGOMERY…PIKE… RANDOLPH…RUSSELL…TALLADEGA…TALLAPOOSA
The rain has crept back northward into the I-59 corridor, as we though it might and is merging with showers coming out of Mississippi ahead of the main cold front tonight. A surface low passing between Meridian and Columbus MS is the likely culprit. Once it moves east of North Alabama tonight, the main bulk of colder air will move it.
I-59 will be the delineation line for rain chances tonight, with the best chances along and southeast of the corridor. Areas to the northwest only have a slight chance tonight. Rainfall amounts will be light, less than a tenth of an inch for areas north of I-85. Another inch or more will fall from Troy to Phenix City.
Lows tonight will range between the upper 30s in Northwest Alabama to the lower/middle 40s in the I-59 corridor to the 50s in places like Alex City, Montgomery and Troy.
I-59 will be the dividing line again on Monday with highs along and to the north generally in the 40s. 50s will be be common to the southeast. We will likely start the day mostly cloudy with skies becoming partly cloudy by lunch time. But it will probably be early Tuesday before skies clear completely. The partly cloudy skies and brisk winds that will continue Monday night will keep Monday night lows warmer than they might otherwise be. Still, lows by Tuesday morning will range from 25F to 31F across our area, with lower 20s in the normally colder spots.
Tuesday will be miserable despite full sunshine, with highs struggling to get out of the 30s north of I-20. It looks like the entire area will experience a hard freeze Wednesday morning with lows in the lower 20s commonplace and teens in colder spots. Christmas Day will be chilly but partly cloudy. Highs will be in the middle 40s, a little below average for this time of year.
