Rain/Snow Tuesday Morning

THE SETUP: An arctic cold front will push across Alabama early today and the rain we are seeing this morning will transition to snow quickly as much colder temperatures move in behind the front.

WARNINGS/ADVISORIES: A winter weather advisory (counties in purple) has been issued for areas as far south as Jackson and Monroeville, and includes, Demoplois, Marion, Camden, Selma, Clanton, Prattville, Wetumpka, and Alexander City. For some reason, people don’t take the advisories as seriously as the warnings, but they should. Advisories must be taken seriously because there will still be significant impacts in the advisory area. Both the winter storm warning and advisory are valid until noon.

POTENTIAL ACCUMULATIONS: Amounts up to 0-2 inches are possible in the winter weather advisory. Most locations will see only about 2 hours of snow, but snow rates could be heavy at times. But don’t get caught up in accumulation numbers. Icing on roads will be a problem wherever snow covers roads. Bridges will ice first. A large part of forecasting an event like this is seeing where the heaviest snowfall sets up on radar.

IMPACTS: Problems will spread eastward with the snow, especially in areas that see heavier snowfall rates. The sun will come out after the snow pushes through and this will help melt the snow and raise temperatures into the lower 40s. But after the sun goes down, temperatures will fall into the 20s and moisture on the roads will refreeze. Travel could be extremely dangerous tonight and Wednesday morning in areas that receive snowfall accumulations.

WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY: Wednesday will feature a good supply of sunshine with a high in the low 40s; the warming trend continues for the rest of the week with highs in the 50s Thursday and Friday. Thursday will be a sunny day, but clouds will increase Friday, and a few scattered showers are possible by afternoon. Nothing really widespread or heavy, however.

Have a great day!
Ryan