01/15/2024
A winter weather advisory has been issued for counties in the HITZ primary listening area, including Etowah, Cherokee, Jefferson, St. Clair, Calhoun, Cleburne, and Talladega.
SNOW: The best chance of accumulating snow is along and north of a line from Hamilton to Decatur to Scottsboro (in the winter storm warning), where amounts of 1-2 inches are likely. The heaviest will come over the northwest corner of the state, where the Shoals could see 4 inches.
FREEZING RAIN: South of that line, in the winter weather advisory, freezing rain or drizzle is more likely. This is precipitation that falls in liquid form when surface temperatures are below 32 degrees. Exposed objects, roads, etc can get a glaze of ice. Some freezing rain is possible down into Southwest Alabama by tomorrow night.
TIMING: Snow is falling now across parts of the Tennessee Valley, and occasional snow will continue through tomorrow night. Some freezing rain or sleet could become involved tomorrow afternoon. Icy travel begins tonight in the winter storm warning area.
To the south, in the winter weather advisory, light rain will likely begin tomorrow morning. Then, as temperatures fall below freezing tomorrow afternoon and evening, it will be freezing rain and icy travel is possible. Initially, the ice will form on bridges and overpasses.
The precipitation will be mostly over by midnight tomorrow night.
Temperatures across the northern half of Alabama will likely stay below freezing all day Tuesday, and by early Wednesday morning we project lows in the 5-15 degree range over North Alabama, with upper teens to the Gulf Coast. There could be some sublimation during the day Tuesday, but icy travel will likely continue through midday Wednesday where snow and freezing rain falls.
ARCTIC COLD: This cold wave is similar to the one we experienced in December 2022...
PRECAUTIONS
Make sure you know how to shut off water valves for potential pipe bursts.
Check on the elderly and others who might not have an adequate heat source.
Please bring pets inside.
Forecasters are saying there will be another chance at some wintry precipitation over parts of North Alabama Thursday night, then another shot of very cold Arctic air arrives Friday and Saturday. We will deal with that once we get past the ongoing system.
The Etowah County Basketball Tournament schedule has been adjusted to play all of Monday and Tuesday games on Monday. Decisions on Wednesday's games will be made following weather developments overnight Monday.
The Calhoun County Basketball Tournament will continue as planned on Monday. According to the latest weather briefings, Monday will be cloudy and cold with rain and freezing temperatures not materializing until around midnight Monday evening/early Tuesday morning. All games for Monday will be concluded before potential weather issues for our area.
Decisions for games on Tuesday afternoon, January 16th, will be made as soon as weather conditions become clearer.
Watch here for updates, as you know the forecast for a winter weather event can always change. We have a continuously updating weather text crawl on our sister outlet - FNN Channel ONE and we will post necessary weather graphics on screen as well. You can view that channel by clicking here - https://c.themediacdn.com/embed/media/WZsBnS/y4WmJlfTsXX/K5XduhsclqK_5?preview=1
