9 January 2011

Deep South Snow

Posted by Dan Satterfield

I do not understand why, but in the South, bread and milk disappear at the mention of snow.

It looks like another big snow is about to hit the Deep South. It’s never easy to forecast snow here and this event is no exception. That said, it’s quite possible that this system will produce an event seen once every couple of decades.

The images below are the snow forecasts from different numerical weather prediction models. Some have the snow northward into TN, and others lighter and further south. Warmer air above the surface is likely to produce significant icing from Birmingham to Atlanta. Heavy snow will be just north of it.

I am leaning heavy but a little further south.

This is the NOAA Global Forecast System model (GFS). Heavy snow north of Huntsville and Atlanta.

The higher resolution (NAM-WRF) NOAA model has heavier snow, and it's further south. I am leaning toward this one with a compromise to lower amounts of the GFS.

Either way, a lot of kids are not going to school tomorrow! I will produce  and post a graphic (if time allows) of where I think we will see the heavy snow band set up. Look for it later this evening.

Snow pics later unless I have a huge busted forecast. I don’t even want to think about that!