Our Florence UNA camera this evening is a good example of what most all of us have been working with today – a gray drab day, with those showers off and on with cool temperatures (so far, upper 40s, a couple low 50s here and there); good sleeping weather, in other words. This moisture, of course, is associated with our next frontal passage, which we’ve been advertising for a few days and will sweep through thru tonight and into tomorrow morning… and sweep through it certainly will. In comparison to what we’ll be facing over the next few days, these upper 40s will feel practically tropical in comparison!
First things first – the moisture doesn’t totally leave the area immediately behind the front, so we have a combination of moisture and freezing and below temperatures, which you may not be surprised leads us to… more snow! But, not much…
Really, we’ll only be looking at isolated spots with a dusting, perhaps up to a half-inch at most. This isn’t enough to cause any huge widespread impacts, but a couple slick spots are possible, especially those shaded spots and the “usual suspect” spots that you may have noticed didn’t melt away quite so fast over the last few weeks. Just drive with a bit of sense, and it shouldn’t be any bother at all.
The main story over the next few days associated with that front moving through will be the absolutely frigid air moving in (which is why we have a Cold Weather Watch at the moment) through the Tennessee Valley. By tomorrow, those highs will be lucky to hit freezing, and the subsequent couple of days we’ll be talking mid-20s for highs – yes, highs – and wind-chills in the SINGLE DIGITS. Tomorrow, for example, gusts in the low 20s-mph are likely, so that cold will sting if you’re not thoroughly layered up. We’re not expecting any precipitation for these next couple of days (through Monday), but by Tuesday, the forecast starts to spice up a little bit.
Of course, we’ve been watching that Tuesday timeframe for the more wintry-type trends, and more model data is coming in that’s giving us somewhat of a better idea as to what we can expect. Now, the thinking isn’t hugely changed – by and large, the major impacts look to be well south of the Tennessee Valley from roughly portions of the Gulf Coast into the near-inland regions of the Deep South. This area doesn’t see particularly frequent snow and ice, so this may be one of the more historic events for some of those places, but us, not quite as much. Indications now suggest that we may be too dry for any meaningful accumulations, or the system may be too far south. Can we rule out flurries? No, not at all, those do look possible. But that said, we’re just not seeing signs that we’re going to have a repeat of the other week, or anything like it. Of course, this is literally an attempt to predict the future, so things COULD change in the coming days, and we’ll of course let you know immediately if so, but as of right now, it appears we’re less likely to have major impacts from this system Tuesday.
Taking a look at the big picture, you can really see where that frigid air is centered on, at the beginning of the week. As mentioned above, we don’t have a constant rich stream of moisture for snow, so our precipitation chances are relatively scant (but not zero, do keep in mind), leading to a fairly decent week… if not for the stinging arctic air! Those 40s at the end of the week will feel like Summer in comparison.
