At The Lunch Hour
A few notes before I do the next weather program….
*Have spend the last hour looking at data, and I can clearly say we are not going to have the same upper forcing that is in progress in Northwest Arkansas now (don’t expect one foot of snow here!). We do note that Jasper, Arkansas just reported 20 inches on the ground!
*The vorticity will become more channeled, and the amount of PVA (positive vorticity advection) will accordingly decrease as the system approaches Alabama. Bottom line is that the intense upward motion will be on the wane as this moves through.
*Thanks to Randy Coleman up in Memphis for the image below… he writes…
“James, it started snowing in earnest here in the past hour. NWS is now calling for 5 to 7 inches. The pic was just taken in Olive Branch, Ms. At noon. The snow has already made the ground white. Temp is only 25. ”
*The idea of a good 1-2 inch snow for the northern half of the state still looks good; we do note modeling is trying to show a spike up in precipitation along I-85 (with the southern-most vort max) in the 1-4 a.m. time frame… if it is cold enough that just might be a zone to watch for some heavier snow after midnight.
*Pretty sure we will need to hit the snow amounts a little harder again for Northwest Alabama, like the original idea from yesterday, with possibly 3-5″ around Muscle Shoals. Some four inch amounts could be seen for places like Haleyville and Hamilton. But, for much of North/Central Alabama… the idea of 1-2 inches is still looking pretty good at the moment, with isolated amounts to 3 inches.
*Again we stress this is a very fast moving system, and most places will see only about four hours of really good accumulating snow tonight.
*For those that have said “every weather system dies before it reaches Alabama”, that is about as far from the truth as anything I have heard today. If you understand the loss of life and hundreds of injuries I have seen from severe weather, and disrupted lives from winter storms on my watch over the last 31 years, you would know how untrue that statement is. We are just coming off an historic snow storm for the North Alabama last month… if you don’t believe me, see the pictures here.
The next full discussion and Weather Xtreme video will be posted here a little later… but I will go ahead and post the final snow accumulation potential graphic below…
Category: Alabama's Weather
About the Author (Author Profile)
James Spann is one of the most recognized and trusted television meteorologists in the industry. He holds the AMS CCM designation and television seals from the AMS and NWA. He is a past winner of the Broadcast Meteorologist of the Year from both professional organizations.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
