SATURDAY UPDATE:  Chilly Nights, Nice Days – COLDER This Week

What a great first weekend in March!  We are in the 30’s early this morning, and we will be in the 30’s again tomorrow morning.  But, the afternoon’s will be nearly perfect, as temperatures skyrocket to near 70.  The big news, though, involves the week ahead.  A strong cold front brings showers and storms early in the week, followed by the biggest temperature plunge in many weeks.  Alabama Growers:  keep reading.  We may be headed for a freeze before next week is over.

TODAY:  A chilly start in the 30’s gives way to a perfect day, with total sunshine, blue skies, low humidity and a high very close to 70.  We are headed back to the 30’s tonight.  Our expected overnight low by dawn Sunday will be close to 37.

NEXT FEW DAYS:  Sunday will be another text book, perfect day.  A chilly morning, gives way to another perfect afternoon with highs in the low 70’s.  Monday, clouds increase as an important cold front edges this way.  Showers & storms move in Monday night and especially Tuesday.  This is the time of the year where every storm system is a potential severe weather threat, however, so far I’m not particularly worried about the severe weather parameters with this system, at this point.  There will be a significant temperature plunge behind the front.

This map shows RAINFALL POTENTIAL through Tuesday.  Some of us could see more than an inch.

 POTENTIAL LATE WEEK FREEZE:  Much colder air will funnel into the state Wednesday, Wednesday night through Thursday and Friday morning, before recovery.  It is certainly possible that we will be close to a freeze, perhaps Thursday morning, but more likely Friday morning.  Alabama growers should be ready.  While this freeze will be “late in the ball game”, so to speak, it’s certainly not unusual.  The average date of the last freeze in Montgomery is March 8th.  The latest freeze ever was April 13, 1940.  Last year we had our final freeze on March 16th with 28.  The high temperature Thursday will struggle to reach the middle 50’s

This map shows POTENTIAL LOWS on Friday morning, from the GFS models.  This suggests lower 30’s deep into south Alabama.  We’ll see if that plays out.

I hope you enjoy what should be a great Weekend!  I’ll have another blog update on Sunday morning.  The next complete video will be Monday morning at 4:45AM.

-Rich

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