Alabama Update – 3:20 a.m.

Several people have heard ideas that Winter Storm 2008 is over before it even got started.

Not true…

We are just in the first quarter of this ballgame.

The low is located just east of Corpus Christi early this morning, moving east northeast.

Regional radars show precipitation from southeastern Texas through much of Louisiana, Mississippi and into Alabama.

At 3 a.m., it was 38F at Tuscaloosa with light snow. It was 36F at Birmingham. Both stations had dewpoints of 28F. Gadsden had 36F with a dewpoint of 22. Anniston was 39/22.

Temperatures are a tad warmer than expected, but the full effect of evaporational cooling has not been finalized yet.

We did not expect the main action to begin until daybreak anyway.

The 06Z of the NAM is in and it does seem to push the main moisture a little further south. But I remind you that we are still in the first quarter of the event. Precipitation is increasing over Mississippi. It was down to 35F at Meridian and 36F at Jackson.

We still believe that a nice band of heavy snow will set up this morning across Central Alabama. The further north and south you go of the main band, the lesser the amounts will be. We still think amounts will be 1-2 inches in the I-20 corridor with 2-4 inch amounts between from about Jemison south to Montgomery then over the Georgia border. A band of 3-6 inch amounts will set up somewhere from about Selma to Jemison to Roanoke to Auburn to south of Montgomery back to Selma.

Heavy snow warning for the 2-6 inch area and a winter weather or snow advisory for the 1-2 inch area through today.

LATE REPORTS
Heavy sleet and snow in Coker…
Large snowflakes in Tuscaloosa near the Black Warrior River…
Getting some good reflectivity returns in the Tuscaloosa area on radar.
Lots of snow in Tuscaloosa…heavy and sticking to cars…
Matt in Walnut Grove north of Altoona in Etowah County just reported hearing thunder…
Roanoke 40F/16F…24 degree spread will take them to freezing when precipitation gets going…they will likely define the northern border of the heaviest snow…

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