The early cloud cover begins to push out by the early afternoon leaving us mostly sunny, but still cold with high temperatures remaining well below average in the middle 30s. Winds today will stay breezy from the northwest with occasional gusts between 15 to 20 miles per hour into the evening. Expect mostly clear skies overnight and overnight lows will plummet into the teens by daybreak Thursday, so plan on a widespread and heavy frost.
Thursday will feature lighter winds and increasing clouds again throughout the day with high temperatures reaching the middle and upper 40s. A Winter Storm Watch is now in effect for all North Alabama and Southern Middle Tennessee counties by Thursday night into Friday evening. A 48 FIRST ALERT WEATHER DAY has been issued on Friday for major travel impacts across the Tennessee Valley and surrounding areas. Please start preparing now for hazardous and dangerous travel conditions developing as early as the morning commute. A center of low pressure along the Gulf of Mexico will bring snow showers initially over Northwest Alabama early Friday morning and this activity will spread eastward through the afternoon. Snowfall rates could be high at times leading to poor visibility, so we do not recommend traveling at all unless it is absolutely necessary.
Any snow or sleet that falls early Friday will immediately start sticking to roadways, sidewalks and surfaces. By the afternoon, freezing rain or sleet could mix in with the snow showers. The highest snowfall totals of four to seven inches will be located over far Northwest Alabama with three to five inches of snow possible for areas along and north of the Tennessee River. Areas south of the Tennessee River and towards Central Alabama will see lighter snowfall totals and have the higher potential of seeing more mixed precipitation in the form or freezing rain, sleet and snow…