Headlines
Winter Weather Advisory for this afternoon and tonight
Next storm system arrives Saturday
The active pattern continues for the next ten days
Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Vlog
48-Hour WX
Seven-Day Forecast
Daily Forecast Summary
Today: Clouds increase. Showers develop by afternoon, changing to snow by evening. Snow continues overnight, with light accumulation.
Friday: Decreasing clouds. Cold.
Saturday: Clouds increase, with showers developing by afternoon.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy, with scattered showers. Showers may mix with or change to snow overnight.
Monday: Mostly cloudy with a chance for snow flurries.
Tuesday: Partly cloudy.
48-Precip Forecast (Liquid)
Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Concerns
Confidence is increasing that we’ll see some measurable snow from this evening’s system. Guidance continues to increase the moisture. It now looks like most of us will see up to an inch, with some folks getting localized higher amounts. This is the same drill we’ve been through this season. If you tended to get more than anyone else during those events, expect the same this go around. If you got less, expect less. The only catch may be our warmer ground. That ground will quickly cool, but it remains to be seen how much moisture will melt on contact before it begins to accumulate. I’ll keep an eye on things!
Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Discussion
This evening’s snow event is like what we’ve seen with prior events this season….a “northwest flow” event. That means that as northwest winds come into contact with our southwest-to-northeast oriented plateau, the orographic lift is maximized, causing any moisture that is in the air to condense and fall from the clouds. If temps are below freezing that moisture falls as snow. These tend to be drier snows, though the ones we’ve had lately have been oddly wetter.
In fact, all of our snows thus far have been “warmer” natured snows and remind me of snow we would get in the spring.
My brother had some Robins in his yard this week, so maybe spring is coming early?
Our next system arrives this weekend and right now it just looks like a rain maker. It should be too cool for bad storms, not cool enough for much snow. I’ll keep an eye on it. After that, another storm system may move in by the middle of next week. It looks to be another rain maker, with possible thunder. The active pattern continues!
On This Day in Wx History
1772 – The “Washington and Jefferson Snowstorm” occurred. George Washington reported three feet of snow at Mount Vernon, and Thomas Jefferson recorded about three feet at Monticello.
Almanac
Yesterday’s National Temperature Extremes
High: 89° at Falcon Lake, Texas
Low: -29° at Crosby, North Dakota
Today’s National Wx Hazards
Very heavy snow is falling in the mountains of the southern Appalachians today. Farther west, freezing rain will threaten the Missouri Boothill region, with snow falling farther north. More snow will fall across New England and the Great Lakes Region, as well. Much farther west, very heavy snowfall will be observed in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, along with flooding valley rains. Heavy snow will also fall across parts of the northern Rockies.
Tomorrow’s National Wx Hazards
Snow can be found from the southern Appalachians to the Great Lakes and New England. Snow continues to pile up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, along with flooding valley rains.
Weather Shots
Monday night’s storm gave us quite the lightning show but folks in Alabama have a fierce tornado to clean up after. Incidentally, this tornado passed very close to or across the tracks for the April 27, 2011 and January 23, 2012 tornadoes in the same area. (Thank you, Sam Shamburger of the NWS Nashville for that info).
The NWS Birmingham reports that, “The Fultondale tornado has been given a rating of EF-3 w/ peak winds around 150 mph. Keep in mind that intensity & width varied along its path. The EF-3 damage was focused near Lykes Blvd to New Castle Rd. We will continue to review, but don’t anticipate a change in rating.” One teenager lost their life in the storm.
NASA Nerdology
Ranger III, NASA’s first attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon, launched during this week of 1962. A series of malfunctions caused it to hurtle past the moon, and it remains in heliocentric orbit today.
Hi Mark. I had my first Robin sighting yesterday a.m. ‘Twas a big fat one, in our front yard (on Catoosa Blvd in FFG).