Into The Deep Freeze

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TRAVEL: Needless to say, with temperatures in the 16-22 degree range this morning, any lingering slush, moisture, or snow on roads is now a glaze of ice. Be very, ver careful, especially in areas north and east of Birmingham…

BELOW FREEZING ALL DAY: Despite the return of sunshine, frigid Arctic air will cover all of Alabama today and most likely we won’t see freezing. The 00Z GFS is showing a high of only 28 for Birmingham today, and considering the depth of the snow over North Alabama and points north, that is probably very close to being correct. Factor in a brisk northwest wind, and the wind chill index will be in the teens much of the day. In fact, at 5:00 the wind chill index in Birmingham is 9 degrees, with a temperature of 21 and a northwest wind at 12 mph. The wind chill index at Muscle Shoals is 6.

REST OF THE WEEK: Look for very cold mornings tomorrow and Friday, with most places winding up in the 12-17 degree range. The coldest morning will come early Friday with a calm wind; I fully expect some single digit lows across the snow covered sections of North Alabama. Then, finally on Friday a warm-up begins with temperatures reaching the mid 40s by afternoon.

THE WEEKEND: Saturday looks great. A sunny sky with a high in the mid 50s. Clouds will begin to return Sunday, but it looks like the rain will hold west of the state through Sunday evening.

NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND: We will mention a chance of rain Monday and Tuesday, although the GFS has recently been a little faster in recent runs suggesting the bulk of the rain will come Monday into Monday night. There might be a little thunder in spots, but with hardly any surface based instability we don’t expect any issues with severe weather.

Model madness rules beyond that… the GFS shows no cold air on Wednesday, while the ECMWF is colder, and the one we accept for now. The GFS does, however, bring down some very cold air around Jan 21-22; watch the Weather Xtreme for more details on weather in the 7-15 day time frame. Confidence in details is very low at this point.

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Tags: frigid

Category: Alabama's Weather