Winter Far From Over
With last week’s groundhog now in hiding and postponing those plans for an early spring, we have some winter weather to deal with over the coming week or two.
Let’s start with the temperatures. In brief, the pattern of upper level winds has taken on what’s often called a “blocking” configuration over the high latitudes, which oftern leads to cold air masses building in those latitudes and finding the means to drive south, leaving a large part of the country colder than normal. That would include the Southeast in this case, so much so that you can take above normal temperatures off the board for the foreseeable future. Though we’re not looking at any record breaking cold for now, we should be experiencing consistently chilly weather.
For the system coming through on Tuesday, though, our temperatures will at least be mild enough to give our area nothing but the usual cold rain. Farther north and deeper into the arctic air, they’ll be dealing with the second of back-to-back snowstorms in some areas.
The system approaching on Friday could be a bit more interesting for us. More than one forecast model shows a surface low crossing the northern Gulf through north Florida, almost a classic scenario for a snow event in Alabama and Georgia. Since that lies four days down the road, the models could change wildly on their depiction of this storm, with a whole gamut of possibilities out there that could take forecasters several days to pin down. At this point, snow cannot be ruled out for any of WTVM’s area on Friday, so keep an eye on this blog and later forecasts. Even a week into February, the winter fun and games may be just beginning,