The Question of the Day: Will it Snow?

I had the pleasure of appearing on the Binnie Myles talk show Perspectives on WAGG Tuesday afternoon. She is such a neat lady. We talked weather for an hour. Callers had some great questions. There was quite a bit of interest in snow. Are we going to have any snow this winter? Why doesn’t it snow as much anymore?

Indeed, it seems that it snowed more when I was younger. You have to go back to the March Blizzard to remember a good snowstorm in Birmingham. That was a difficult storm to enjoy because of the deep snowcover, bitterly cold temperatures and extensive power outages.

Before that was the 1992 Saturday snow where I broke my leg, foot and ankle playing in the white stuff. We saw that one coming well in advance and the forecast verified beautifully. I think the final snowfall was around four inches. A good weekend storm.

I remember a great surprise April snow in 1987. I was listening to the NOAA Weather Radio before bed. The forecaster reported that temperatures would rise during the night. When I awakened at 4 a.m., it was snowing furiously. About seven inches of heavy, wet snow fell.

These were the nights that got me excited as a kid. Whenever snow might be in the forecast, I would stay up all night, calling the NWS forecast line over and over and watching the thermometer like an expectant father, hoping for temperatures to fall below freezing as rain ended. It will be an exciting weekend for snowfans all across Alabama.