6:57PM January 17, 2025

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MILD FRIDAY; RAIN OVERNIGHT INTO SATURDAY; VERY COLD AIR MOVES IN SUNDAY… Get outside and enjoy the sunshine and mild weather today while you can as we have rain returning to our local area overnight into Saturday followed by an extended cold snap that will last for about a week starting on Sunday. High temperatures will be close to our climatological norms for this time of year on this Friday with most spots reaching the mid 60s. Cloud coverage will increase later today into tonight ahead of rain and perhaps a few thunderstorms becoming possible overnight into Saturday. Very cold air will begin surging into our region behind an advancing cold front on Saturday night. Temperatures will tumble all day on Sunday ahead of overnight lows around the 20 degree mark by Monday morning.

RAIN OVERNIGHT INTO SATURDAY; FEW STORMS NEAR COAST… Scattered showers will increase in coverage tonight into Saturday morning ahead of a cold front. There is a chance you may hear some thunder across the region, particularly in areas closer to the immediate coast, on Saturday morning. Widespread severe storms are not expected.

FRIGID AIR MASS MOVES IN SUNDAY INTO MONDAY… The system responsible for the rain on Saturday is a cold front that will cross our area from northwest to southeast on Saturday night into Sunday. Sharply colder air pushes in behind the advancing front. Temperatures will be in the upper 40s on Sunday afternoon with a brisk northwesterly wind. Temperatures will nose dive into the 20s on Sunday night into early Monday with wind chill values in the mid 10s by 6AM Monday. Highs on Monday may stay in the 30s all day.

LOW-END CHANCE FOR SNOW OR MIXED PRECIPITATION TUESDAY INTO WEDNESDAY… The overall thinking from last night has not changed that much: Confidence continues to be quite low surrounding what exactly will happen toward the middle part of the upcoming week. There is a chance parts of south Alabama and northwest Florida could have snow/mixed precipitation/rain around Wednesday of the upcoming week. Details remain all but impossible to sort out, which is typical with snow systems that affect the Deep South. If you are rooting for snow, I would put the odds at about a 1 in 5 chance right now. “20% ain’t nothing,” but the chances are not particularly high at all either. I suspect that more data will arrive this evening into Saturday that will hopefully drastically firm up the details about what we can expect next week. The odds of a crippling ice storm have come down a bit, thankfully, as that scenario would be particularly hazardous and impactful for our local area. We will know more information in the days ahead. Please check back in for updates.

EXTENDED PERIOD OF VERY COLD CONDITIONS… Regardless of what happens with the snow/mix situation, we are looking at an extended period of very cold conditions next week. There is a growing chance we may have many hours of subfreezing temperatures. For now, it looks like we may go just above freezing on Tuesday during the daytime hours, but I caution that the forecast may have to be modified that indicate Tuesday will have the *entire day* with temperatures below the freezing mark. That is a possibility. This will be an extended cold snap like our area has not had in quite some time. Be ready!

APP… redzoneweather.com/app is the link where you can download the free RedZone Weather app. We post brief updates throughout each day in the app, keeping you up-to-date about the latest happenings in weather across south Alabama and northwest Florida. Once you have the free app downloaded to your iOS or Android device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab (lower right corner) then tap the large Alert Settings button to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.

I will have updates posted throughout the weekend, as needed, in the RedZone Weather app. Have a nice Friday!

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