Colder Air Slips In Here

The morning video update is ready for viewing:

http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/video.hrb

The cold front is passing through Birmingham at 6:00 this morning. Muscle Shoals is in the upper 40s; Birmingham is in the 60s. I still expect temperatures to fall during the day, with places like Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Anniston, and Gadsden settling into the 48 to 52 degree range by midday. Rainfall amounts should be rather light.

A wave forms on the front, and rain should become widespread tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night. Then, the rain ends early Saturday and a majority of the weekend will be very nice, with low 60s on Saturday and upper 60s on Sunday. Low 70s are likely early next week on Monday and Tuesday as the upper air pattern keeps the brutally cold air up north for now.

Watch the video for details on the mid-month situation. Beginning to look like a shallow instrusion of cold air. Maybe much colder thanks to the vast snow pack over much of the nation. Above the shallow layer of cold air a southwest flow aloft will persist... that pattern is screaming for a freezing rain/ice threat somewhere across the south. Maybe Kentucky or Tennessee? Alabama not out of the question. But, the door is open for some ice issues in the January 15-20 time frame.

Still puzzled by the front page article in the paper yesterday about some kind of "storm of the century" next week. There will be another big buildup of cold air up north next week, and those folks will see some snow, but the scenario painted in that article about historic snow amounts and tornadoes in the deep south is just out of line. Straight from crazy town.

There will be plenty of opportunities for serious snow/ice set-ups through the month around various parts of the nation, and there will be some very significant problems, but no need to stock up for another blizzard of 1993, or superoutbreak of tornadoes in 1974 like that guy was trying to suggest!