Winter and Spring All In a Week

System moving out of the Gulf of Mexico and through the Southeast today has already delivered a wide swath of wet snow accumulation through Alabama and into northern Georgia. Some of the higher terrain of northeast Alabama has seen 3” to 6” of accumulation. The highest totals received so far: Lookout Mtn-Chattanooga, TN (7”), Pisgah, AL (6”), Coker Creek, TN (6”), Collinsville, AL (5”), Mentone, AL (4”), Hayesville, NC (4”), Whitewell, TN (4”), SE Huntsville, AL (3”), Arab, AL (3”), Albertville, AL (3”) and Grant, AL (3”).

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Pictures/Videos from Northern Alabama/WAAY-TV

Additional pictures from the Chattanooga area and northern Georgia from WRCB-TV available here.

This system will continue to track NNE along the Atlantic coast over the next 48 hours and will continue to deliver a wide swath of heavy wet snow accumulation along the Appalachians from South Carolina into Pennsylvania. Much of the mountains will see 4” to 6” of accumulation while the valleys will see 1” to 3” of slushy accumulation. Roads in many cases will only become slushy during the heaviest snowfall bursts, except for higher elevations. Minor accumulations will likely encompass much of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Snow accumulations will likely pick up again from northeast Maryland through southeast Pennsylvania into New England. First forecast numbers for a few key cities:
Raleigh, NC – 2” to 4”
Washington, DC – 1” to 2”
Baltimore, MD – 1” to 2”
Philadelphia, PA – 2” to 4”
New York, NY – 3” to 6”
Hartford, CT – 5” to 8”
Boston, MA – 6” to 9”

After this storm passes the weather turns quiet for the remainder of the week from the Rockies eastward. In fact, a nice warming trend is in store for most of us providing for a nice Spring-like weekend. Hope many of you will be able to get out and enjoy it after the winter we have had!

Computer Forecast Highs for Saturday

Computer Forecast Highs for Sunday

However, even though it will be much warmer, this weekend’s highs will still range about 4 to 8 degrees below normal from Texas to New England while becoming 4 to 8 degrees above normal in the Plains and Upper Midwest.

Sunday's Forecast Highs versus Normal

It won’t be as nice for those west of the Rockies as the next storm system will roll out of the Pacific and into California on Friday. More heavy rain is possible for much of the state with some heavy snow in the highest elevations of the Sierras. The storm system and rains will move through Arizona and Utah Saturday night through Sunday. This storm system will then eye the Plains for early next week and may become the season’s first severe weather threat for much of the nation along and south of I-70 from Kansas to Indiana. This will be monitored closely and I will post updates regarding any possible severe weather threat as we near the event.

Since severe weather may be on the way, I strongly encourage you to begin preparing and have your severe weather plan in order. Know where you are going to go in a severe weather event whether you are at home, school, work, public place or in a car. You should also have a working battery operated TV and/or radio and flashlight. I also recommend a NOAA weather radio and Weather Call. If you are not familiar with Weather Call, simply click the link to learn more. In my opinion, Weather Call is the most advanced and life-saving piece of technology available with regards to notifying you in a very timely manner of severe weather and tornado warnings. It is based on the new warning method of storm based warnings versus the old-fashioned method of issuing warnings via an entire county. This increases effectiveness and awareness of the warnings which in turn can save more lives. I strongly encourage you to at least check it out and learn more. And “Yes”, the service is available to anyone in the lower 48 even though the link is via WAAY-TV in Huntsville.

Now, if you have been thinking to yourself, “boy it sure seems like it has been quiet regarding severe weather this year?” you are right. February 2010, was the first February since records have been kept in 1950 in which there were NO tornados reported. You can read more about that here.