Sunday Weather Briefing Video: Freeze Warnings Again Sunday Night

How are your brackets holding up? I know, dumb question. But it was fun having the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament again at the BJCC after a 15-year absence. Having Alabama AND Auburn here was a real cherry on top as well.

VERY CHILLY TODAY: A fairly decent freeze is being experienced across North and Central Alabama on this day before the official start to spring. Spring actually arrives at 4:24 p.m. CDT tomorrow. High temperatures will struggle to get out of the 40s over North and much of Central Alabama today. That is on top of the very cold readings this morning, mainly in the 20s, giving much of the area a significant freeze. A gusty northwest wind, especially early, with result in wind chills in the teens early this morning.

ANOTHER FREEZE TONIGHT: Tonight will be the coldest night of the three, so another Freeze Warning is in effect for tonight into early Monday. Lows tonight will range from the teens in some of the normally colder valleys for North Alabama to the low 20s across the rest of the Tennessee Valley, middle 20s in the I-20 Corridor, and upper 20s as far south as the Florida border. So continue to protect the three Ps: people, pets, and plants.

GRADUAL WARMUP THIS WEEK: A big upper-level trough covering much of the eastern United States this morning. It will gradually give way to upper-level ridging and by midweek that ridge will be centered over North Alabama and Tennessee. This will lead to a dramatic warmup. How about going from 50s Monday to 60s Tuesday to 70s Wednesday to 80s Thursday and Friday? Kind of a stairstep fashion that will be easy to remember. Lows will go from 20s Monday to around freezing Tuesday to 40s Wednesday, 50s Thursday, and 60s Friday. Nice and orderly, huh? We will be dry Monday and Tuesday, with a chance of a few showers mainly over the northern third of the state Wednesday. All that goes back north as a warm front Thursday allowing for those 80s to appear. We should be protected from any rain until Friday night after that.

WEEKEND OUTLOOK: The first weekend of the newly minted spring will rain moving out Saturday morning with clearing skies and slightly cooler conditions. The good news is that the mercury won’t drop precipitously behind the Pacific system. Looks for Saturday highs to be in the 70s mostly for highs, with mostly 50s for morning lows. Sunday will be warm still, with rain showers returning Sunday night.

DROUGHTWATCH: At the beginning of the water year, October 1, 96.11% of California was in drought or abnormally dry conditions. That number is down to 70.76% and drought conditions are only affecting 48.36% of the Golden State. Here is Alabama, the North is wet, but the South is dry. The southern third of the state is considered to be abnormally dry, while just a tiny portion of the Wiregrass is in drought conditions.

BEACHCAST: A nice week ahead if you are lucky enough to be heading to the beautiful beaches of Alabama and Northwest Florida. High pressure will be in charge, with only a small chance of an isolated shower until Saturday. Highs will be in the 50s today and Monday, 60s on Tuesday, and 70s the rest of the week. Lows will be in the 30s tomorrow morning, 40s Tuesday, 50s Wednesday, and 60s the rest of the way into the weekend. Rip current risk will be high today with 4-foot waves, but low to moderate the rest of the week. Water temperatures are in the mid-60s now.

Click here to see the Beach Forecast Center page.

NATIONALLY: The SPC has a 15% severe weather risk for the Red River Valley for Thursday, including southern Oklahoma and North Texas. While the confidence is not there for issuing a risk for Friday, it appears that severe storms may be a part of the forecast over the South. We may be a part of that here in Alabama, so stay tuned.

DANCING WITH THE STATS: -22F Saturday morning at Lake Yellowstone WY, one of my favorite spots. That smashed the old record of -14F set in 2002.

ADVERTISE WITH US: Deliver your message to a highly engaged audience by advertising on the AlabamaWX.com website. We have a lot of big plans for this year. Don’t miss out! We can customize a creative, flexible, and affordable package that will suit your organization’s needs. Contact me, Bill Murray, at (205) 687-0782 and let’s talk.

WEATHERBRAINS: This week, the panel will entertain Friend of the Podcast, Jen Walton. She will be talking about the Women Who Chase group that she founded. Check out the show at www.WeatherBrains.com. You can also subscribe on iTunes. You can watch the show live on our new YouTube channel for the show.You will be able to see the show on the James Spann 24×7 weather channel on cable or directly over the air on the dot 2 feed.

ON THIS DATE IN 2018: A severe weather situation was caused by a cluster of thunderstorms that rode along a stalled warm frontal boundary over North and Northeast Alabama. The storms caused 14 tornadoes and brought a wide swath of destructive hailstorms. A huge hailstone that fell at Walter, in eastern Cullman County measured 5.25 inches in diameter, perhaps making it the largest hailstone ever recorded in Alabama and according to the Storm Data database, the largest ever reported east of the Mississippi River. The hailstorm pounded the city of Cullman with several minutes of hail larger than baseballs. It may have been one of the five biggest hailstorms in United States history according to Chris Darden, who was the Meteorologist in Charge at the National Weather Service Huntsville then. He is now the MIC at the Birmingham NWS Office. The strongest tornado of the day was an EF3 tornado with maximum winds of 140 mph that struck Jacksonville, Alabama, and the campus of Jacksonville State University. That long-track tornado was on the ground for 34.29 miles in Alabama before continuing for a short distance into Georgia. Miraculously, no one was killed and only four people were injured in that tornado. Follow my weather history tweets on Twitter. I am @wxhistorian at Twitter.com.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS, Winter Weather