The Pre-Christmas Storm

The weather will be the talk of the town next week. You know the deal; rumors of snow storms and a white Christmas are flying through grocery stores, beauty shops, and school hallways across the northern half of Alabama.

Our focus will be on a storm system that is projected to form in the mid to late part of next week, in the December 22-24 time frame. Seems like the last several model runs have hinted this will be a mostly rain event for Alabama, with a possible change to snow on the back side of the storm. These kind of events usually don’t amount to much when it comes to getting snow on the ground. However, let me stress that the GFS might not understand the depth of the cold air that will blow in here Sunday and Monday, and the surface low in the middle of next week could form more to the south, in the northern Gulf of Mexico, which would be more favorable for an all-snow event here. Give me another 24 hours and I will go ahead and make an initial call on this storm system here tomorrow morning.

Down the road, not a whole lot of confidence in a storm system that some model runs have shown in the December 26-28 time frame. If one does indeed form in the northern Gulf then, it could very well be cold enough for some snow around here, but we have to get through the first storm before we really worry about it.

And, snow fans, don’t forget the flurries coming Sunday. Sometimes this pattern can produce enough snow to make the ground white up on Lookout Mountain in extreme northeast Alabama. I know the operators of the Cloudmont Ski Resort up in Mentone have to love this weather pattern! I hear some of the slopes are already open at Alabama’s only snow ski resort.