Mother Nature ready for Round 2 in weather melee

HUNTSVILLE – Sun has been out, green is reappearing on lawns, time to get back to normal, right?

Not so fast.

While there has been a warming trend the last two days, the second punch of a disruptive winter weather event is about to be delivered. 

The National Weather Service Huntsville issued a Winter Weather Advisory from noon today until 6 a.m. Friday. The song remains the same for the Huntsville metro area and the Tennessee Valley: Stay off the roads as much as possible.

“We’ve got some continued really, really rough travel conditions,” Andrew Pritchett, lead forecaster for the NWS Huntsville, told 256 Today. “We’re gonna warm above freezing today, which I think everyone’s excited about, but it’s really kind of coming at a cost because some of the stuff that can melt on the roads is gonna just refreeze tonight when it gets colder and we’re gonna have continued travel impacts Friday potentially well into Saturday as well just due to the fact that another very cold air mask is gonna move in.

“So really the threat for dangerous travel conditions is not over.”

Some light freezing rain will likely accompany this next system, which will only compound the problem. Travel problems could remain through the weekend and into early next week.

“The surface temperatures are colder and we could see some light glazes of ice or re-freezing of that precipitation just due to the cold surface temperatures as well,” Pritchett said.

Affected areas regarding this coming cold air event are portions of north central, northeast and northwest Alabama and southern middle Tennessee. Stay inside is the message for those areas.

“We’ll have wind chills below zero and low temperatures in the single digits,” Pritchett said. “That’s gonna be very problematic and dangerous and we urge folks to stay at home if they can and not be out on the road, especially when they’re really icy and dangerous like they are right now.”

If travel is necessary, follow these tips:

• If it’s not an emergency, call ahead to make sure your destination is even open before taking the risk.
• Have a safety kit in the car in case of a wreck or other event that causes the vehicle to stop.
• Be dressed for extremely cold temperatures.
• Have gas in the car.

The No. 1 tip, however, is don’t go out unless it’s absolutely necessary.

“I think when you add a lot of traffic to the road, maybe folks are just driving around because they’ve got cabin fever, so to speak, all that does is add potential for more accidents for the essential folks that have to be out there,” Pritchett said. “And it treads down some of the snow that’s already there that just refreezes ice. So it creates rougher travel conditions for later.”