James Spann: Rain moves out, cold air moves into Alabama, with a few snowflakes
James Spann has the Christmas Eve forecast for Alabama from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
MERRY CHRISTMAS: Widespread rain across Alabama will end later this morning as much colder air rolls into the state. A Tornado Watch remains in effect for a few counties in southwest Alabama, but that will be canceled soon as the storms move rapidly eastward. Temperatures fall into the 30s today with an icy north wind, and in the cold air a few snow flurries or showers are possible this afternoon, mainly east of I-65 and north of I-20.
A few heavier snow showers are possible tonight across northeast Alabama, and we still see evidence in modeling that a narrow lake-effect snow band could set up over parts of Marshall, DeKalb and Cherokee counties coming off the Tennessee River and Lake Wheeler. A few spots there could see one-half inch on grassy areas, but for most places there won’t be any meaningful accumulation. Travel impact is not expected, as roads should dry today before temperatures go below freezing tonight.
CHRISTMAS DAY: The sky will clear tonight, and by daybreak Friday we project lows between 16 and 24 degrees over the northern half of Alabama. During the day the sky will be sunny with a high between 36 and 42 degrees. It looks like Birmingham will fail to reach 40 degrees, only the 12th time this has happened on Christmas since 1900.
THE ALABAMA WEEKEND: Saturday morning will feature another hard freeze with a low between 15 and 25 degrees; then we warm to near 50 Saturday afternoon with a sunny sky. Sunday will be a mostly sunny day with a high in the upper 50s.
NEXT WEEK: A cold front could bring a few sprinkles Monday, but moisture is very limited and significant rain seems unlikely. Tuesday will be dry with a high approaching 60 degrees; then a potent storm system will bring rain and thunderstorms to the state Wednesday, Wednesday night and possibly into Thursday morning. It looks like a system similar to the one we have experienced over the past 24 hours; models are showing very limited instability for now, which will greatly keep the severer weather threat low, but the system is still six to seven days out and things could change. Colder, drier air arrives by Thursday night and Friday.
ON THIS DATE IN 2004: An extremely rare snowstorm hit southeastern Texas. Corpus Christi International Airport officially measured 4.4 inches. This was the second white Christmas ever recorded in Corpus Christi. The other one occurred in 1918, when 0.1 inch was reported.
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