The Warm-Up Begins

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THAWING OUT: Birmingham is at 48 degrees at 2:00 with bright sunshine. Funny how that 48 sure feels warm compared to recent days. Our warm-up will continue for the rest of the week, with mid 50s tomorrow, and upper 50s on Friday, making those two days the warmest ones so far this year. We stay dry through Friday, although high clouds will be around from time to time ahead of the developing system in the western Gulf of Mexico.

WET WEEKEND: Models are looking a little more aggressive with our weekend system; watch the Weather Xtreme video and you will see the 12Z GFS moves the surface low right up I-65 from Mobile to Birmingham Saturday night, meaning a pretty good wet-down statewide. We will still forecast one inch of rain for this part of Alabama from around 12:00 noon Saturday through 6:00 a.m. Sunday, but it sure looks like we might need to considering making that 1 to 2 inches if these trends continue. The air will be rather stable, so I don’t expect too much thunder around here. Just a good rain event.

And, no really cold air will follow the rain, although Sunday should be a little cooler with a high in the 40s. We might see a few peeks of sunshine by Sunday afternoon.

NEXT WEEK: The first half of the week will be dry, but another very wet weather system will move through here Wednesday night and Thursday; this one will have the potential to bring us 1 to 2 inches of rain.

LONG RANGE: We continue to watch the build-up of very cold air over Alaska with interest, as parts of that huge state have dipped below -50 (F) during the past two mornings. Looks like that air will drop south in our direction, and we could turn sharply colder about the time February gets here. Winter is far from over, you know.

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Be watching for the kids from Trace Crossings Elementary on the Pepsi KIDCAM today at 5:00 on ABC 33/40 News… the next Weather Xtreme video will be posted here by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.

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