Historic White Christmas Unfolding ! !

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Merry Christmas to everyone!!! And what a Christmas 2010 could turn out to be with snow falling across portions of North Alabama already this morning. Be sure to stay tuned to the Blog for the latest information as this will be a changing day!

The surface map this morning saw a low over Southeast Louisiana which is projected to move quickly to the Georgia coast – between Savannah and Jacksonville – by tonight at midnight. As the low moves along the Gulf Coast, the precipitation across Central Alabama will be changing to a combination of rain and snow before becoming all snow by this afternoon. There is still some question as to just how far south the accumulating snow will extend. Many sections of Central Alabama will see amounts of one half to 2 inches and the NWS in Birmingham has extended the winter weather advisory to include all of Central Alabama including a sizable portion of the southeast part of the state – not including Dothan area. Remember, an advisory is for snow amounts of one half to 2 inches. Most of the snow is likely to stay northeast of a line from Vernon to Clanton to Eufaula.

Another question mark at the moment is how much of the snow will stick to roadways. We were fortunate to have plenty of sun yesterday which helped to warm the pavement, so I think the impact of the snow is likely to be limited as far as causing really serious travel problems. But it is better to be safe, so if you do not need to be out on the highways, don’t go! Stay home and enjoy the snow!

With the surface low to near Savannah by midnight, the threat of serious snow will diminish into the evening hours. However, with cold air and clouds sticking around through much of Sunday, it appears that snow flurries will linger into the day tomorrow with some potential for scattered snow showers. And Sunday will be a cold day with highs only reaching the upper 30s.

Monday will start the day brutally cold with a morning low dipping to near 20. That means some locations will get into the teens. Even with good sunshine the high Monday will still struggle to get near 40. But take heart, the warmup begins on Tuesday. After another chilly morning with lows in the 20s we should see lots of sun that will help afternoon temperatures climb into the 40s.

Tuesday signals the beginning of a serious warmup as the upper air flow changes dramatically. A new and digging trough takes up residence over the West Coast while a large ridge pumps up across the East. This means that by Friday we could easily see high temperatures into the 60s. In fact, using the 540 line as a marker, it moves from the Gulf Coast tonight all the way to New York by Thursday. And with that southwesterly flow, moisture will return with chances for rain on Thursday and Friday as we get set to close out 2010. The big storm system in the Central US gets cranked up on Saturday which is going to create a major travel mess for the Central US for those folks planning to head home on New Years Day. Timing could change on that event that far out so we’ll be watching those developments. The system looks very strong so I would suspect we could see some severe weather to go along with it.

Voodoo country right now looks somewhat calm. A zonal or slightly southwesterly flow is maintained for much of week 2 so there are no drastic temperature changes or potential winter weather events on the horizon at the moment.

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I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas as some will certainly be seeing an event not previously seen in the area for over 100 years. The next Weather Xtreme Video will be posted by 8 am or so tomorrow morning. Stay up with the latest weather information by checking back on updates here. Godspeed.

-Brian-

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Category: Alabama's Weather