PATCHY AREAS OF BLACK ICE POSSIBLE ON LOCAL ROADWAYS TONIGHT INTO TUESDAY MORNING… Scattered areas of black ice will be possible on roadways across south Alabama and northwest Florida tonight into Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service in Mobile has issued a statement discussing this potential: “Arctic air will move into the region tonight with temperatures quickly dropping below freezing from west to east this evening. Temperatures will drop into the teens and 20s overnight, coldest west of the Interstate 65 corridor. Given the widespread rain from today, any residual water left on area roadways will quickly freeze tonight. The most likely areas to experience black ice would be near and west of I-65 where there will be less time for roads to completely dry prior to the arrival of sub freezing temperatures. However, patchy black ice cannot be ruled out anywhere across inland southeast Mississippi, southwest and south central Alabama, and the western Florida Panhandle.”
CERTAIN ROADS ARE ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE TO BLACK ICE… “Temperatures will remain below freezing through much of Tuesday morning, but sunshine is expected to help to dry out those roads that are not shade covered. Shade covered roads may take longer to improve depending on the degree of black ice that forms. Drivers are encouraged to use extreme caution when traveling tonight as you will not be able to tell where black ice forms. Be especially carefully at the base of bridges and overpasses, along with any other roads that tend to have standing water.”
WIND CHILLS IN THE SINGLE DIGITS IN WEST ALABAMA OVERNIGHT… Tonight will be one of the coldest, if not the coldest, night of the year for our local area. Air temperatures near 20 degrees by daybreak on Tuesday combined with a brisk wind out of the northwest at 10-15 mph will make the air feel *extremely* cold. Wind chill values as low as 3 to 5 degrees will be possible across parts of northern Washington, northern Clarke, and Choctaw counties in west Alabama. Most spots locally will have wind chill values in the 10s. VERY COLD NIGHT AHEAD!
SUNSHINE RETURNS TUESDAY… Clouds will move out early Tuesday morning to our east, allowing sunshine to break out during the daytime hours. Due to ongoing cold air advection, high temperatures on Tuesday across our area won’t get out of the mid-40s. Temperatures will again be below freezing on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Wind chill values won’t be as cold since winds will have calmed down quite a bit.
APP… Be sure to download our free RedZone Weather app if you haven’t done so already. redzoneweather.com/app is the link where you can download the app for your iOS or Android device. Once you have the app downloaded, be sure to visit the Alerts tab in the lower right corner of the app to select the specific notifications you would like to receive straight from me.
I will have another update a bit later detailing the potential for severe weather locally on Wednesday evening into Thursday morning.