No Dull Moments Here

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Those morning snow flurries/showers/flizzards sure stirred up a fuss. At mid-afternoon they are gone, and the western half of the state is bathed in sunshine. Temperatures at 2:00 range from 27 at Muscle Shoals to 47 at Mobile. The Birmingham Airport is reporting 31 degrees; quite a contrast from yesterday, when the 2:00 observation was 73. Yep, that is a 42 degree swing! With the increase in sunshine, we will warm up a bit during the next hour, but over East Alabama, where the clouds are hanging tough, some spots will have a hard time rising above the freezing mark.

TONIGHT AND TOMORROW: The great Alabama weather legend, J.B. Elliott, has dropped the forecast low for tonight down to 21 degrees. Of course, there will a big swing from valley to ridgetop; the coldest valleys will be in the upper teens at daybreak tomorrow. We warm up nicely tomorrow with a sunny sky and a high not too far from 60 degrees. It will be a different kind of day.

SEVERE WEATHER POTENTIAL SUNDAY: The risk of a severe weather outbreak across Alabama Sunday is increasing. On Friday, clouds will slowly increase, and a few showers could show up Friday night or Saturday. But, no doubt the big event will hold off until Sunday. A strong upper trough will approach from the west during the day Sunday. That trough will go slowly negative tilt, and phase with another trough in the northern branch. The 12Z GFS shows the surface low forming near Memphis Sunday morning, which will mean a severe weather risk statewide if that placement is correct. We will highlight showers and storms on Sunday with rain potential of around one inch. We will fine tune the severe weather threat in the days ahead.

ANOTHER COLD BLAST: Monday of next week looks like today. A very cold airmass will drop into Alabama in response to a phased long wave upper trough over the eastern U.S. We will have a hard time getting out of the 30s, and morning flurries are possible. We will be well below freezing by daybreak Tuesday.

LONG RANGE: No point at trying to identify specific weather systems beyond seven days in this pattern, but the weather should remain active and very changeable through the rest of Feburary (29 days this month… 2008 is a leap year!).

STORM ALERT 2008 COMING TO CLAY COUNTY: Our next storm on the Storm Alert 2008 tour is Lineville; we will be there next Thursday night (February 21) at Lineville High School. The doors open at 5; the show starts at 7:00.

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.

I will have the next Weather Xtreme video posted here by 7:00 a.m tomorrow!

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