4:00PM 1/27/2019 – RZW Exec

DETAILED SNOW PROJECTION BELOW… RZW Exec partners, I hope you’re having a nice end to your weekend. Below you will find a highly detailed projection of the snow potential setting up for Tuesday. We will share much of this information publicly in the next few hours. This is very specific, but if you need more information and/or guidance related to decision support needs for your school, organization, or business, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

HIGHLY DETAILED COUNTY-BY-COUNTY SNOW PROJECTION… Snow to the north and rain to the south. That’s the one liner summary of how Tuesday’s winter weather event will shape up. The greatest chance of experiencing snow will happen 6AM to Noon on Tuesday along the back edge of a mass of precipitation that will move across our area from west to east. Some spots will see no accumulation, whiles areas on the northern side of our region COULD end up with over 1” of snow in isolated spots. The bigger snow amounts will happen across northern and central parts of Alabama where 2-4” of snow can’t be ruled out.

CHOCTAW, WILCOX, NORTHERN CLARKE, NORTHERN WASHINGTON, NORTHERN MONROE, NORTHERN BUTLER COUNTIES… These will be the communities that will likely pick up between 0.25” and 1” of snow in total. There could be isolated higher amounts up to 2” of snow, but I expect that to be the anomaly locally with the greater snow amounts clearly happening to our north. Communities like Thomasville, Fulton, Grove Hill, Coffeeville, Campbell, Tallahatta Springs, Sweet Water, Dixons Mills, Pine Hill, Camden, Pine Apple, Greenville, Forest Home, Awin, McWilliams, Beatrice, Franklin, Vredenburgh, Nanafalia, Silas, Toxey, Butler, Gilbertown, Lisman, Pennington, Millry, and Cullomburg are included in this zone. The greatest chance of accumulating snow in these zones will happen from 6AM to Noon on Tuesday with the snow/precipitation ending from west to east.

CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN PARTS OF WASHINGTON, CLARKE, MONROE, BUTLER, AND NORTHERN CONECUH COUNTIES… 0.1” to 0.5” of accumulating snow is expected in total in these areas. Could there be a few surprises? Yes, and some areas may pick up more than the expected amount. On the contrary of that, some spots in this zone may have no accumulation. Greater snow chances will happen well to the north. The following places are included in this zone: Chatom, Leroy, Wagerville, Fruitdale, Jackson, Gainestown, Perdue Hill, Monroeville, Frisco City, Repton, Evergreen, Owassa, Lyeffion, Bowles, Midway, Starlington, Georgiana, McKenzie, Oaky Streak, Luverne, and Troy.

COVINGTON, ESCAMBIA (AL), MOBILE, BALDWIN, ESCAMBIA (FL), SANTA ROSA, OKALOOSA COUNTIES… If you’re a “snow lover” and you live in one of these counties, unfortunately “the odds are not in your favor” when it comes to this snow potential. While snow flurries are possible, accumulating snow is much less likely. I caution though, there could be a few isolated spots that have a dusting of snow before this is all over, although that will be the anomaly and not the trend. Places in this zone include: Mobile, Citronelle, Bay Minette, Stapleton, Stockton, Uriah, Calvert, Atmore, Poarch, Flomaton, Brewton, Castleberry, Andalusia, Carolina, Opp, Florala, Gantt, Brantley, Walnut Hill, Bratt, Molino, Jay, Berrydale, and Laurel Hill.

COASTAL AREAS TO HAVE RAIN ONLY… Snow will probably not happen in coastal areas of Alabama and northwest Florida. If you live south of Interstate 10, there is a high chance you won’t have snow or flurries at all. More likely, we will just have a cold, miserable rain in these areas: Pensacola, Daphne, Fairhope, Spanish Fort, Loxley, Silverhill, Robertsdale, Foley, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Perdido Key, Dauphin Island, Bayou La Batre, Coden, Theodore, Gulf Breeze, Pensacola Beach, Milton, Pace, Navarre, Holt, Harold, Crestview, Destin, Fort Walton Beach, Mary Esther, and Niceville.

SOUTHEAST ALABAMA… Snow accumulation is not expected in southeast Alabama & the Wiregrass region. Could snow flurries happen? Yes, that is a possibility. This includes places near Dothan, Enterprise, Elba, Ozark, Daleville, Geneva, Samson, Abbeville, and Eufaula.

FLORIDA PANHANDLE – RAIN… There is high confidence that the Florida Panhandle region will have a cold rain and no snow/flurries on Tuesday. This includes Walton County and points east: Miramar Beach, Seaside, De Funiak Springs, Mossy Head, Chipley, Marianna, Bonifay, Panama City, Mexico Beach, Port St. Joe, Apalachicola, and Blountstown.

CENTRAL AND NORTH ALABAMA… The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch for much of northern and central Alabama where 1-3” of accumulating snow could happen. Travel impacts could be pretty extensive with roadway closures possible. Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Anniston, Gadsden, Demopolis, Centreville, Sylacauga, Centre, Cullman, Oneonta, Jasper, Fayette, Aliceville, York, Eutaw, Marion, Haleyville, Double Springs, Saks, Leeds, Clanton, Huntsville, Decatur, Muscle Shoals, Guntersville, Moulton, Russellville, Athens, Ardmore, Florence, Fort Payne, and and surrounding areas are included in this zone.

VERY COLD AIR MOVES IN TUESDAY AFTERNOON… Temperatures will be QUITE cold Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning, regardless of if your particular location has snow on the ground or not. We could be in hard freeze territory by Wednesday morning with upper-10s becoming possible on the thermometer by 6AM Wednesday across our northern counties. Wednesday will be a very cold day with highs only in the 40s under mostly cloudy skies.

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1:38PM January 27, 2019

SNOW FOR OUR NORTHERN COUNTIES ON TUESDAY; RAIN FOR MOST… Confidence continues to grow in our forecast in that our northern counties will likely have low amounts of accumulating snow on Tuesday while areas to the south will just have a cold rain with no major snow impacts. For south Alabama and northwest Florida, the greatest chance of accumulating snow will happen across the northern parts of Clarke, Washington, Butler, Monroe, and Conecuh counties. Snow amounts in the northern parts of these counties will likely be in the 0.25” to 1” range. South of these northern zones, accumulation will probably be near zero. Unfortunately for folks in coastal counties of Alabama and northwest Florida, the snow chance is near zero other than a few flurries being possible as rain exits our area on Tuesday morning. That is the summary. Here are more forecast details…

MOSTLY CLOUDY, COOL SUNDAY… Clouds continue to stream in from the southwest off the Gulf of Mexico on this Sunday afternoon. Temperatures remain in the 50s across the area. Afternoon highs will likely be in the mid- to upper-50s for nearly all locales across our region. Another cold night is ahead with overnight lows near 35° in most spots.

MAINLY DRY MONDAY… Partly cloudy skies are expected on Monday with high temperatures in the mid-60s. No significant weather issues are expected on Monday.

RAIN CHANCES RISE EARLY TUESDAY MORNING… The chance of rain across south Alabama and northwest Florida will increase significantly during the early morning hours of Tuesday as a powerful cold front approaches from the northwest. Snow will likely be falling across north and central Alabama along the back edge of the precipitation mass. For our area until 7AM, we likely will just have rain. After 7AM is when things get more interesting…

SNOW POSSIBLE ALONG BACK EDGE OF RAIN SHIELD… The chance of rain changing over to snow will be greatest across the northern fringes of our interior counties of south Alabama: Washington, Clarke, Monroe, Conecuh, and Butler. Places like Beatrice, Vredenburgh, Thomasville, Fulton, Coffeeville, Silas, Toxey, Millry, Camden, and Greenville could pick up upwards of 0.25” to 1” of accumulating snow during the morning hours (7AM to 11AM) on Tuesday. There could be road/travel impacts in these areas. Please plan accordingly and plan to be off the road Tuesday morning, if at all possible. A bit of good news is rain/snow should clear out of entire area by 1PM on Tuesday, allowing temperatures to rise somewhat in the middle of the day and allow drying on area roadways to happen. This could potentially help limit the black ice potential Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

LESSER SNOW AMOUNTS (DUSTING) TO THE SOUTH… We’ll call it a minor dusting of snow for the official forecast for places like Monroeville, Georgiana, McKenzie, Evergreen, Luverne, Repton, Lyeffion, Burnt Corn, Jackson, Grove Hill, Chatom, Wagerville, and Leroy. Snow accumulation amounts will likely be in the 0.1” to 0.5” range in these areas.

FLURRIES ONLY FOR MOST… Any snow that happens to the south of the above-mentioned zones will likely be more of a curiosity than anything else, if current trends hold. We’ll probably just have an abundance of rain with a few flurries in places like Brewton, Atmore, Poarch, Flomaton, Castleberry, Andalusia, Opp, Florala, Bay Minette, and Citronelle. A few flurries are possible in Mobile, Loxley, Walnut Hill, Jay, over to Laurel Hill. No real impacts are expected.

VERY COLD AIR MOVES IN TUESDAY AFTERNOON… Temperatures will be QUITE cold Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning. We could be in hard freeze territory by Wednesday morning with upper-10s becoming possible on the thermometer by 6AM Wednesday across our northern counties. Wednesday will be a very cold day with highs only in the 40s under mostly cloudy skies.

LOOKING AHEAD TO THE END OF THE WEEK… Showers and thunderstorms will become possible toward the end of the week as temperatures moderate back into the 60s. Early model indications point to an unsettled, wet, mild pattern as we go into the upcoming weekend.

UNCERTAINTY CONTINUES… Winter storms and snow are two of the most difficult things we deal with in the weather forecast world for the Deep South. This is due, in part, to the relative infrequent nature of these systems. We don’t have a lot of good analogs to compare the atmosphere to in these situations. I say that very directly to say that this remains a LOW CONFIDENCE forecast. There can and will be changes that we need to make over the next few days. Please continue to check with me as we update the latest information. You can always get the latest info I post across social media and on our website in the RedZone Weather app.

APP ALERTS… We will continue to monitor the snow potential setting up for Tuesday over the next few days and bring you the latest via the RedZone Weather app. Be sure to visit the Alerts tab (bottom right corner) and tap the large, yellow “Alert Settings” button to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.

Have a great Sunday evening!

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