Beautiful Winter Scene This Morning

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SEE YOU AT McADORY HIGH TONIGHT: A reminder the kickoff of Storm Alert 2011, our annual severe weather awareness tour across Alabama, is tonight at the auditorium at McAdory High School in McCalla… the show begins at 6:45; I hope to see many of you there!

ABOVE FREEZING BY MID-MORNING: So far so good… we have not heard of any major traffic problems this morning, but we still advise caution since most places are below freezing and there could very well be icy spots on bridges for the next hour or so. Just got a report of a crash on I-59/20 near the Airport exit blocking two lanes, but not sure if it is ice related or not.

The sun will come up over a snow covered Alabama (the northern half)… general amounts are in the 1-3 inch range, with some heavier totals (4 inches or so) over counties like Lamar, Walker, and Marion. J.B. will bring you a big snow total round-up here a little later this morning. We also have hundreds and hundreds of your pictures… (pictures@abc3340.com if you have some we haven’t seen); I will post a fresh slide show shortly.

Enjoy the beauty this morning, because the sun today will melt much of it off by afternoon. The high will be in the 37-41 degree range for most spots with a chilly north breeze. Tonight will be cold; where snow is still on the ground we expect mid to upper teens, with lows 20s elsewhere.

LET THE WARM-UP BEGIN: This will be the last in the series of cold air shots for a while. Look for a string of sunny days tomorrow through the weekend; temperatures will reach the upper 40s tomorrow, low 50s Saturday, and low 60s Sunday. Should be hard to find a decent cloud in the sky on these three days.

MILD NEXT WEEK: We are still projecting highs in the mid 60s all next week. The weather stays dry Monday through Wednesday, but a few showers could show up by Thursday and Friday with a dying surface front with little upper support. Rain should be very light and spotty.

VOODOO LAND: Still no sign of any Arctic air invasion around here for the rest of February so far. Temperatures will be above average… and it looks like precipitation could be below average as a general upper ridge builds across the Gulf Coast states. A very nice break from the long, cold winter for Alabama. But remember, we can have cold snaps into April… and snow has been seen around here during the first week of April (good, accumulating snow at that). The average date of the last freeze in Birmingham is March 26, but we have seen freezing temperatures as late as April 23 (recorded in 1986).

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The next Weather Xtreme video will be posted by 3:30 this afternoon… enjoy the day!

Tags: cold

Category: Alabama's Weather