Good Thursday morning! We will see dry weather today before our winter storm sets in late tomorrow. For today, expect partly cloudy skies with highs in the upper 40s and lower 50s. Winds will be out of the south and southeast around 5-10mph.
Our main focus forecast wise is our winter storm moving in late tomorrow evening and lasting into Sunday. While some will experience little to no ice, others across our area could see an Ice Storm from this setup. As the precipitation moves in late Friday night, a mix of snow/sleet/freezing rain can be expected. This will likely not cause many issues early on since the ground is too warm. Once we get into the morning hours Saturday, heavier precipitation will move in. We expect icing problems to develop across Northwestern Alabama and here into Southern Tennessee during this time. However, during the midday to early afternoon hours, a warm nose of air will punch in from the south changing some areas to a cold rain as temperatures rise above freezing. This will likely happen for areas closer to Athens, Decatur, and Huntsville, with areas further west and north still seeing some freezing rain and sleet.
The mixed bag of precipitation will continue into Sunday with areas of rain for parts of North Alabama and freezing rain for others. Once we get into Sunday afternoon and evening most of the storm will be moving off to the east. There could be a brief period on the back side of the system where things change to snow, but very little accumulation is expected.
For areas that see the most ice, we do expect a lot of problems to develop. Roads will become very hazardous if not impassable, and there could be some power outages. Tree branches could fall due to the weight of the ice. For those who see some ice but mostly rain, some slick spots on the roads will be possible but we do not expect any major issues or any prolonged power outages.
This is still an evolving forecast so keep checking back for the latest!
The other issue from this system is the very cold temperatures coming in behind it. We expect lows down into the single digits Monday night and Tuesday morning! We will see temperatures get above freezing going into Tuesday and then continuing into the day on Wednesday.
Have a great Thursday!
