A Calm Period Ahead

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below. You can subscribe to the Weather Xtreme video on iTunes by clicking here.

SNOW PICTURES: Be sure and scroll down for many pictures of the snow yesterday across the northwest part of Alabama. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to send them to us!

SUNSHINE RETURNS: After a wild week which featured tornadoes, flash flooding, and snow for parts of Alabama, our weather calms down today with the return of cool and stable air. Lots of sunshine today with a high in the upper 40s. After a cold night tonight (we should be in the upper 20s at daybreak tomorrow), we will enjoy a weekend warm-up, with a high in the mid 50s tomorrow, and close to 60 Sunday. Moist air will begin to return on Sunday, but with the lack of a trigger we won’t mention any significant chance of showers at this point.

NEXT WEEK: The week looks relatively mild, with some risk of showers on just about a daily basis. Afternoon temperatures will reach the mid to upper 60s, almost ten degrees above average values for mid-December. Moist air will cover the state, but a warm ridge nosing in here from the south will keep the surface fronts north of Alabama, and accordingly no cold air intrusions are expected.

VOODOO LAND: The idea of a positive NAO and milder weather for the latter half of December continues. The main flow of cold Arctic air will be into the western U.S., when occasional Rocky Mountain snows are likely. Over the eastern U.S., including Alabama, looks like temperatures will be relatively mild with no sign of severe weather or winter weather events. Looks like we have a great chance of catching our breath in coming weeks. But, look for a flip back to a negative NAO come January. The idea of a cross-Polar flow is on the table at some point in early 2009.

YESTERDAY’S SNOW EVENT: As always, some Alabamians were delighted with the snow, and others disappointed with no snow. My biggest mistake of the day was pulling the snow area south on our forecast around 8:30… in response to developments over South Mississippi and RUC model data that is used on the SPC mesoanalysis site. When it was obvious that was a mistake, I pulled it back to th north by early afternoon when the snow band was setting up over Northwest Alabama.

I said it often early in the week, and I will say it again today, there is very little skill in forecasting a cold core upper low snow event in Alabama, and everyone struggled with it from Texas to Tennessee. I do congratulate the National Weather Service in Birmingham for holding with their Northwest Alabama snow idea through the day. They caught criticism for a winter weather advisory being issued for Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Gadsden, where only snow flurries came down last night, but once again, considering the lack of skill in this kind of setup, I thought their products were very good.

TWITTER: Don’t forget, you can follow our news and weather updates from ABC 33/40 on Twitter here. And, my personal Twitter feed is here if you want to keep up with my adventures in life. Twitter is a short messaging service you can receive via the web, cell phone, or IM.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left.

Busy day today… I will be at the Habitat for Humanity site we are sponsoring this morning out in Wylam… then the ABC 33/40 Christmas party which is midday… followed by a stop at Liberty Park for an early afternoon speech. I will crank out another discussion later today and hopefully a Weather Xtreme video if time allows. Enjoy the day!

Category: Uncategorized