What About A WHITE CHRISTMAS?

Lets cut to the chase here. Everyone is asking me: “Will it snow at Christmas?”. My answer right now is: I don’t know. Sure, some of the models have shown a nice snowstorm at times right before Christmas, but there is absolutely no consistency, and no reason for us to jump on anything this far in advance. We might have a storm just before Christmas that offers only a cold rain. Or, the storm could stay well down in the Gulf not impacting us al all. But, for you snow lovers, you do have a chance. I should also mention there is some chance of a major blast of true Arctic air in here sometime during the last 7 days of the month if we can get a phased storm system over the eastern states which would allow the upper air winds to develop a true cross-polar connection. This would be the set-up like in 1983 and 1989 we discussed here yesterday. I stick with the line I have been using now for the last ten days or so: I will be very surprised if we do not have at least one threat of snow or ice before the end of December.

Speaking of snow, yesterday was the seventh anniversary of a big surprise snowstorm that impacted much of central Alabama and central Mississippi. On Sunday, December 14, 1997, a cold core upper low moved along the U.S. 80 corridor, and places like Demopolis and York wound up with over six inches of heavy, wet snow on the ground. And, this on a day when those of us in the weather office were forecasting only some light rain. That was a case of “cold core upper low, weatherman’s woe”, as the system literally brought its own cold air through dynamic cooling from above, and we really had no clue this was going to happen until the change to snow happened over in Mississippi during the pre-dawn hours. Yet another reminder to expect the unexpected when it comes to winter weather around here. Lets get ready for a very interesting two weeks of weather!