WIND CHILL VALUES AS LOW AS ZERO (0°) OVERNIGHT; DANGEROUS ROADS INTO WEDNESDAY… The back edge of the falling snow continues to move southeast across our region as of 8PM. Falling snow will come to an end shortly but the dangers associated with the snow/ice on the local roadways are set to continue. I cannot stress enough: DO NOT DRIVE overnight into Wednesday morning unless you have a dire emergency. We have already seen numerous accidents and vehicle collisions today. The snow on local roadways will become a solid sheet of dangerous ice overnight. Driving is strongly discouraged on Wednesday morning and into the midday hours until we can get some significant snow/ice melting underway. There is a growing chance, due to the extreme over-performance of snow totals that have happened today, SOME roadways may not recover to the point of being sustainable for driving until Thursday. Clouds will give way to sunshine tomorrow in the late morning hours. The sunshine will help to melt snow/ice along with temperatures projected to be above 32° starting around 11AM. We’ll have a good 6-7 hours of temperatures above freezing to hopefully eliminate most of the ice/snow. Temperatures plunge below freezing again tomorrow around 5:30PM.
SINGLE DIGIT WIND CHILL VALUES AT 6AM; AIR TEMPS AROUND 10°… This is the coldest wind chill map (attached) I have ever seen for south Alabama and northwest Florida since I started RedZone Weather. Some communities will have wind chill values near zero by 6AM. Single digit wind chill values will exist all the way down to the Alabama and northwest Florida beaches. These wind chill values are lower in areas that have higher amounts of snow on the ground. That’s why you see Thomasville and Gilbertown having higher wind chill numbers than communities further to the south. The snow on the ground makes the air feel much colder. Air temperatures, or what you will see on the thermometer, will be around 10° by daybreak tomorrow.
A HISTORIC DAY OF RECORD-BREAKING SNOWFALL ACROSS S.W. ALABAMA & N.W. FLORIDA… The snow storm that happened across south Alabama and northwest Florida shattered the single day snowfall accumulation records for Mobile, Pensacola, and many other communities across the region. The previous records were set in a snow event 129 years ago in the year 1895. Widespread snow totals of 6 to 9 inches are common across the region this evening with the highest totals, so far, happening in Covington County. I have had two reports in the last hour of 11+ inches of snow on the ground. One report was at Babbie, the other was at Pleasant Home. Regardless of how much snow your location received, we lived through a day most of us will never forget TODAY.
THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE REPORTS AND SNOW PHOTOS… Thank you to everyone who took the time to send in a snow totals report and/or snow photos and videos from across our region. I greatly appreciate you doing that! I promise, even if I do not reply, it really does help us know what is going on in specific communities. Because of the sheer volume of reports and photos, I can’t reply to everyone, but know without a doubt, the reports and photos are immensely appreciated. THANK YOU!
GRADUAL WARMING TREND OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS… High temperatures will be in the 30s tomorrow, 40s on Thursday and Friday, 50s on Saturday, and 60s on Sunday. There will be many people craving some warmer weather after the snow event and after the multiple rounds of very cold temperatures we have had. Milder weather is coming this weekend!
APP… If you haven’t already, be sure to download the free RedZone Weather app to keep up with all the latest information on the world of weather in south Alabama and northwest Florida. redzoneweather.com/app is the link for the free download. Once you have the app downloaded to your iOS or Android device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab (lower right corner) and tap the Alert Settings button to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.
I will have the next regularly scheduled RedZone Weather forecast video posted by 7:15AM tomorrow morning. Please do not drive on local roadways tonight as conditions will be quite hazardous. Stay warm and stay safe!