I sure hope you enjoyed the 70 degree temperatures over the weekend. A strong cold front has brought an abrupt end to that today and temperatures for many of us will not get out of the 30s this afternoon.
The front has also stalled to our east so instead of drier air moving in with the cold, more waves of rain are likely over the next few days. After picking up 1-2" of rain in many areas yesterday and additional 2-3" of rain is possible over the next couple of days. Here's what WAFF 48 Pinpoint Predictor is forecast through Noon Wednesday:
Because of the threat for additional heavy rain on top of already saturated ground, the National Weather Service in Huntsville has issued a Flood Watch for areas primarily to the east of I-65.
As if the rain wasn't enough we are also monitoring the potential for some frozen precipitation. Sorry snow lovers...even though it's cold the weather set up is not conducive for that. Instead we would be looking at ice, primarily in the form of freezing rain. Freezing rain occurs when rain falls and then freezes on objects at the ground. Air temperatures at the ground have to be 32 or colder for this to occur. Right now WAFF 48 Pinpoint Predictor keeps us in the mid to upper 30s tonight.
However, sometimes the computer forecast models do not handle shallow, cold air masses well and it's possible portions of northwest Alabama and southern Tennessee could drop to 32 later this evening and tonight. With that in mind, the Huntsville National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for some of our area. The advisory runs from 3pm today until 9am Tuesday.
Due to the warm weather of the last week and temperatures being borderline for ice, it doesn't appear that there would major travel problems in our area. But some light icing could occur on trees and powerlines.
Jeff Castle
WAFF 48 Storm Team
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