HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Our first opportunity for rain moves into the Tennessee Valley tonight and then through the first half of the day Saturday. There is a system sitting to our south that will begin to move to the northeast. That movement will usher in some moisture to different portions of the Tennessee Valley. The good news here is that current model runs do not have us near as wet as previous models.
The best chance for rain is going to be east of the I-65 Corridor, but some scattered showers will be possible across the entire Tennessee Valley. We're also looking at the chance for some non-problematic freezing rain across far NW Alabama Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon.
All of the above is separate from the bigger threat for accumulating ice that comes Sunday night and sticks with us through Monday evening.
An area of low pressure over Texas on Sunday will begin to track northeast. The exact track is going to be incredibly important in determining just how much of the Tennessee Valley sees Ice.
The track the low is currently forecast to take will have the highest impact in regards to ice totals across NW Alabama. A lower impact which would mean lower ice accumulation would be felt across the I-65 Corridor. This looks to be a low or no impact event across NE Alabama.
This is reflected in the current forecast ice totals. Higher across NW Alabama where 1/2" is possible. Those across the I-65 corridor could get up to 1/4" of ice. No ice would occur in the NE.
With a quarter-inch of ice, it is important that one limits any travel and is mindful that there could be some scattered power outages.
When we get to the point where we see over 1/4" we begin to see some real problems. Roads are icy and power outages become more widespread. Given the weight, tree branches are more likely to break.