The weather pattern shifts to a very cold setup into the New Year

Dry weather has returned to Alabama after some severe weather. The National Weather Service is surveying downtown Athens to see if a tornado touched down overnight Saturday into Sunday morning.Now we look to a quiet, mild final few days of 2024. Check the video forecast for the latest. MILD, DRIER SUNDAY Sunday’s weather will be warmer than usual for late December with a breeze blowing in from the west. You can expect afternoon high temperatures in the lower to middle 60s with a mostly sunny sky. It will get chilly tonight. Temperatures will drop to the middle 40s by sunrise on Monday morning.ANOTHER WINDY STORM SYSTEM COMINGMonday will be about as nice a day as you will find in late December:Crisp and cool in the morning, lows in the mid-40s.A warm south breeze in the afternoon, high temperatures touching the mid-60s.Some sun and some clouds, but zero rainfall expected.We will be watching another strong area of low pressure developing nearby Monday night and Tuesday. We can call it “strong,” but it will not have any real fuel to work with to produce any “stormy” weather other than the wind.Monday night and Tuesday morning will be blustery but dry. Occasional wind gusts will top 35 to 40 miles per hour as that strong area of low pressure tracks across Missouri and Kentucky. There will only be a small chance of some light rain Monday night and early Tuesday, and then it just looks breezy and mild Tuesday afternoon. Temperatures will still rise to the 60s one more time this week before colder air begins to drain southward across the United States.HAPPY NEW YEAR!New Year’s Eve celebrations around Alabama will be dry and cool. Temperatures will be in the 40s around midnight with a fair sky and a northwest breeze around 5 to 15 miles per hour.New Year’s Day (Wednesday) in Alabama will be as “average” as they come. Birmingham’s normal high temperature on January 1st is 52 degrees; the normal low is 34 degrees. We expect to be very close to those numbers for New Year’s Day with no major weather problems whatsoever.HERE COMES THE COLDReady or not, here it comes! We have been talking about a very cold start to 2025 for several weeks now. The weather pattern will fall into place for multiple waves of cold air to blow as far south as Florida in the first two weeks of January.The first shot of Arctic air will hit Friday into Saturday, and it will drive temperatures down into the 30s and 40s for highs while our lows dive to the twenties.Even colder air will arrive during the first full week of January, and in the chaotic back-and-forth of the Arctic surges, there could be a threat of some wintry weather in there as well.For the latest Birmingham weather information and Central Alabama's certified most accurate forecast, watch WVTM 13 News.Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram.