Birmingham, Alabama.  Here comes the rain and the cold air.

Meteorologists are looking at this system that’s approaching central Alabama in awe.  On our upper-level charts it is a classic “bowling bowl”.  That is it is a system that is largely cut off from the prevailing jet-stream flow and resembles a rotating turntable in the sky.  There will be 3 main impacts here: 1) rain that will fall heavily at times Sunday morning and midday; 2) much colder weather from late Sunday through Monday, and 3: some snow showers Sunday night into Monday.  It will be wet as folks leave for church in the morning with temperatures in the 50’s.  There may be a few rumbles of thunder, but I am not expected anything severe.  The rain will taper off to showers in the afternoon.  Temperatures will start to fall Sunday afternoon and will continue on down toward the low 30’s at night.  The deepest moisture will be out of here by Sunday night.  Still enough will remain that there could be some snow showers or mixed snow and rain showers Sunday night and part of Monday.  The ground is warm and the amount that falls should be rather limited.  So I am not going to forecast any accumulation, though I suspect there will be a whitening of the grassy areas in places.  That is most likely to happen over the higher elevations north and east of Birmingham.  Later Monday it will dry out, and Tuesday will offer major improvement with sunshine and temperatures recovering to the middle and upper 60’s.