ICE & FREEZING RAIN POSSIBLE TO OUR NORTHWEST EARLY NEXT WEEK… Rain is in the forecast locally early next week, but areas not too far from us in parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, and northwest Alabama could be dealing with significant ice accumulation issues. Model data continues to firm up on the idea that the bitterly cold, Arctic air expected to move into much of the eastern half of the continental United States will likely remain to our west and northwest. That means that for the local area, RAIN remains the story. This remains a lower confidence forecast, thus changes may be needed in the days ahead.
GREATEST ALABAMA IMPACTS IN NORTHWEST CORNER OF THE STATE… Ice accumulations could become a real problem in parts of northwest Alabama early next week. The greatest chance, at this point, of icy roads and the potential for power outages appears to be along and northwest of Interstate 59, generally. This includes places like Muscle Shoals, Florence, Huntsville, Cullman, Jasper, Fayette, Gordo, Aliceville, Moulton, Hamilton, Russellville, Decatur, and surrounding areas. The greatest issues are expected to be Monday evening into Tuesday morning.
LONG WAY TO GO IN WINTER… If you’re a snow or winter weather fan, don’t fret just yet. We still have over a month left in winter. Based on the ongoing weather pattern with multiple rain chances each week, there certainly could be other opportunities in the weeks ahead for snow across the local area. Even Monday is not a sure bet at this point to not have snow, but the odds have certainly decreased.
RAIN LIKELY AT TIMES OVERNIGHT AND INTO FRIDAY… Before we get to next week, we have multiple chances of rain ahead. Most of the heavier rain that happened in many locales earlier has shifted to our east across parts of southeast Alabama and the Florida Panhandle region. Scattered showers continue across our local area. These showers will continue overnight into Friday. Another wave of rain will likely move across our area Friday afternoon and evening. Severe weather remains highly unlikely.
APP ALERTS… 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, yellow Alert Settings button to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.
I will have your next full forecast video posted by 7:15AM on Friday morning. Have a good Thursday evening!