A Chilly Wind

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My rain bucket here in North Shelby County shows a rain total of 0.43″ from last night’s storms… but some folks got more. J.B. will have a long list of rain totals here on the blog a little later this morning as we celebrate some rain for a change.

THE DAYS AHEAD: Temperatures will go nowhere today… despite the return of sunshine in full force, we hold in the 50s all day with north winds gusting to 25 mph at times. Then, tonight, as the wind dies down, we will drop quickly, and by daybreak tomorrow we should have a thick blanket of frost on the ground with temperatures in the 23 to 35 degree range. The valleys will be in the 20s, the ridges in the 30s.

Cool and dry weather is the story through the weekend with only a slow warming trend… more great weather for the high school football playoff games tomorrow night, and the college games around the Deep South on Saturday.

THANKSGIVING WEEK: The GFS is becoming locked into a solution for next week that sure has the potential for some beneficial rain for Alabama and the drought stricken Southeast U.S. A deep upper trough forms over the Southwest U.S. early in the week, and the most organized rain will remain west of here through Wednesday. However, southerly winds will begin to bring moist air back into the state, and a few showers could break out by late Tuesday or Wednesday.

For travelers, we need to let you know this pattern will bring the risk of a significant snow storm to Denver the day before Thanksgiving… with snow also possible that day (Wednesday) in the general area from Amarillo, Texas to north of Kansas City, Missouri. Of course, the details could change as we get closer, but winter weather problems could foul up travel in those general areas, and the Denver airport could be a challenge if you are flying through there.

The trough slowly moves in our direction, and it looks like we will have periods of rain and thunderstorms on Thanksgiving Day, with even heavier and more widespread rain on Friday (November 23). And, just for fun, back in the colder air the rain could change to snow as far south as Dallas on Thanksgiving… that will make for football fun at Texas Stadium for the annual Thanksgiving Day game.

But, back to our situation, if the model is correct this could bring rain totals well in excess of two inches Thursday and Friday of next week. Just what we need.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left. Just heard from John Coleman last night… John is the founder of the Weather Channel, and he has agreed to go on WeatherBrains with us next week. He has some interesting views on “global warming”… we look forward to having him on the show.

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This morning I will be headed to Gardendale where I will be speaking on climate change at a Youth Worldview Conference… then back into the office by early afternoon where I will have the afternoon edition of the Weather Xtreme video posted by 3:30. Enjoy the day!

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