RAIN LIKELY AFTER SUNSET; COLD TEMPS FOR CHRISTMAS DAY… Mostly sunny skies are forecast on this Saturday ahead of higher rain chances tonight into Sunday. Rain should hold off until a few hours after sunset this evening for most locales across south Alabama and northwest Florida. Cloud coverage will increase throughout the day. High temperatures will be in the low-60s today. Looking ahead to the week of Christmas, Monday and Tuesday will be partly cloudy and quiet. Rain will likely return late Wednesday into Thursday as a potent cold front pushes through. Christmas Day on Friday will likely be dry and quite cold, with highs potentially in the upper-40s and low-50s in many spots locally. The map attached highlights the projected low temperatures for Christmas Day morning. A few more Saturday forecast notes are below.
LINGERING SHOWERS POSSIBLE ON SUNDAY… Heavy rain will be possible at times tonight into Sunday morning. There is no formal risk of severe weather and thunderstorms should be limited to the immediate beach areas. Some rain may linger into the daytime hours of Sunday before moving out late in the day. High temperatures on Sunday will be near 60.
COLD FRONT MOVES THROUGH ON THURSDAY… After this weekend, our next chance of rain happens late Wednesday evening into Christmas Eve on Thursday as a potent cold front approaches from the northwest. This will likely be a rain event with no snow or frozen precipitation anywhere close by. The closest place that snow seems remotely possible may be the higher terrain of northeast Alabama, but even that is highly questionable at this point.
NO SNOW OR MIXED PRECIP IN THE FORECAST… Unfortunately for everyone who was wishing for snow later this week, that idea seems to be off the table. The rain will simply “outrun” the cold air, which is quite common for our region. Rain will likely exit the area Christmas Eve night, just in time for Santa Claus to make his big trip across our region! This means that Christmas will likely be dry and cold as rain should be long gone to our east.
HIGH TEMPERATURES ON CHRISTMAS DAY IN LAST DECADE… I went back through the archive data to explore our past high temperatures on Christmas Day for the last decade. Turns out there is a pretty wide spread here, with highs ranging from the low-50s to the mid-70s. It appears 2020 will end up being on the lower side of that range, with the projected high temperature for Christmas Day (as of today) being right around 50 in most spots. If that value happened to verify, it would be the “coldest Christmas in the last 10 years!”
Projection: 50 in 2020
71 in 2019
64 in 2018
53 in 2017
74 in 2016
75 in 2015
57 in 2014
51 in 2013
73 in 2012
66 in 2011
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Have a great Saturday!