By Robert Hudson

The Selma Times-Journal

 

The Christmas season and the month of December brings with it images of snow-covered grass, trees and streets, but those dreaming of a white Christmas will have to look elsewhere this year.

The chances of snowfall hitting the state of Alabama are hovering around zero, but the holiday weekend won’t exactly be dry.

“I would just say there are zero chances of a white Christmas in Alabama this year,” National Weather Service meteoroligst Holly Britton said. “We will have rain. It looks like we will have rain move into the area probably Christmas Eve (Saturday) evening. And it’s probably going to rain most of the evening on Christmas.”

Selma residents can expect a similar forecast, as rainy conditions are expected to persist from Saturday all the way to late Christmas day.

“It looks like by sunset Christmas Eve there’s going to be some light rain moving into the area,” Britton said, “and then it should rain overnight Saturday night ending in the Selma area Sunday afternoon.”

While January of this year saw 49 of the 50 U.S. states receive some amount of snowfall, current high temperatures in the Southeast are around 70 F.

Britton said the system that will arrive for the Christmas weekend is simply too warm to provide the necessary environment needed to produce the snow commonly associated with Christmas.

“I would say it’s zero percent for the whole state,” Britton said. “The system that’s going to bring the rain for the Christmas weekend, it’s just going to be too warm. There’s not going to be any cold air with it that would give us any snow, not even any flurries unfortunately.”