MINOR ICE ACCUMULATIONS POSSIBLE ACROSS WEST ALABAMA FRIDAY MORNING… Freezing rain will become possible across parts of southwest Alabama on Friday morning, potentially causing hazardous travel where ice accumulation happens on local roadways and bridges. For most communities (specifically in northwest Florida and in coastal Alabama), this will simply be an event with a cold rain with no major travel issues. Communities farther inland in parts of Monroe, Clarke, and Washington counties, however, have the greatest chance of experiencing freezing rain that could make travel a bit more difficult on Friday morning. Before we get to the main “winter weather event” on Friday, we have a round of rain set to move by tonight into Thursday. A few more Wednesday afternoon forecast notes are below.
RAIN LIKELY TONIGHT INTO THURSDAY… Cloud coverage will continue to increase across south Alabama and northwest Florida this afternoon into this evening ahead of increasing rain chances setting up in the overnight hours and into Thursday morning. Showers and perhaps a thunderstorm or two will happen Thursday morning as a frontal boundary slides across our region. Rain chances will go down throughout the day on Thursday. Temperatures will start around 6AM near 60 degrees, but we’ll be in the 40s by tomorrow afternoon as cold air rushes in from the north. It should be emphasized that no freezing rain or mixed precipitation is expected tonight or on Thursday.
FREEZING RAIN & SLEET POSSIBLE FRIDAY MORNING… A fairly narrow corridor of freezing rain (rain that falls as liquid water but then freezes on contact) will be possible Friday morning across inland areas of southwest Alabama. This corridor of freezing rain and/or sleet will be most likely to happen in areas along and west of Interstate 65. This means that Monroe, Clarke, Washington, northern Mobile, northern Baldwin, and western Butler counties are the zones where freezing rain is most likely to happen.
COLD RAIN FARTHER TO THE SOUTH… A few bridge icing issues may also happen in parts of Mobile, Baldwin, Escambia (AL), Conecuh, northern Covington, and Butler counties, but at this point, it seems that widespread issues will not happen in these zones. Most communities in these counties will likely have a cold rain on Friday morning.
NO MAJOR ISSUES CURRENTLY EXPECTED FOR NORTHWEST FLORIDA… No significant winter weather issues are expected across northwest Florida, although a few bridge icing issues in far northern Escambia (FL) County are not completely out of the realm of possibilities. A cold rain is expected across northwest Florida with no major issues.
NOT AN EXTREME ICE STORM… I mentioned in this morning’s forecast video that the truth of what will likely happen in this winter weather event will likely not be one extreme or the other, meaning a crippling ice storm is NOT expected and a “no impact” cold rain is also not expected for the entire region. This means the truth of what will happen is probably in the middle of those outlier, extreme solutions. Minor ice accumulation is the most likely solution across southwest Alabama with a cold rain for the rest of our region. This continues to be a highly uncertain, volatile forecast situation that is subject to large changes very quickly over the next 36 hours until this potential winter weather event begins. Winter weather events in the Deep South are incredibly difficult to forecast, and this event is no exception. There inevitably WILL be some surprises along the way as we get into Friday.
APP… If you haven’t already downloaded the RedZone Weather app, now is a great time to do that. redzoneweather.com/app is the link to the free download. Once you have the RZW app installed on your iOS or Android device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab to turn on the specific notifications you’d like to receive. All notifications are handcrafted by me. No automation and we promise not to bug you!
I will have updates throughout the day and into this evening in the RedZone Weather app. My next detailed forecast video will be posted by 7:15AM tomorrow morning. Have a nice Wednesday evening!