textproduct: Huntsville

KEY MESSAGES

Updated at 1140 AM CST Fri Jan 30 2026

- Cold Weather Advisory is in effect 11 PM tonight through Noon Sunday for dangerously cold wind chills between -5F and 5F.

- Wind gusts between 25-35 mph tonight through Saturday night.

- Low chance of light snow (little to no accumulation expected) tonight across portions of northeast AL and southern middle TN. Most areas will see some flurries, but little or no accumulation.

NEAR TERM

(Tonight) Issued at 328 PM CST Fri Jan 30 2026

Earlier this afternoon with the daytime heating and sunshine temperatures climbed into the upper 30s to around 45 degrees south of the Tennessee River. However, based on observational data and radar returns over the last few hours, a cold front is developing and pushing southward into southern middle Tennessee and northwestern Alabama over the last hour or two. This is all occurring ahead of a strong upper low at 500 mb that is beginning to push southeast towards the area.

An area of consistent radar returns have been building southwest from the Nashville area. So far though, no reports of light snow or visibility restrictions have been seen in area observations south and west of Bedford county in TN. How much the precipitation and cold air advection behind the front can reduce the dewpoints depression will likely largely determine if any of those radar returns end up reaching the ground this afternoon and very early this evening. If models are correct, the much drier air (seen just west of these radar returns (dewpoints from 5 to 15 degrees) will advect into the southwest edge of the precipitation aloft, making it hard for any to reach the ground until the actual upper low moves into northern Alabama late tonight (10 PM tonight to 6 AM Saturday).

In addition, the upper low should be pivoting more to the east towards daybreak on Saturday. Thus, it could push most of any precipitation reaching the ground east of the area primarily. The exception may be parts of Franklin county, TN and eastern portions of Jackson or Dekalb counties. In these areas, though still low, there may be more of a chance of a trace up to 0.5 inches in a few spots. This will be a very light snow that likely will be blown quickly off the road if it accumulates.

Winds will really pick up later tonight, as the upper low moves into the area. 850 mb winds should pick up to between 35 and 40 mph in response to the approaching upper low. A good deal of this should be able to be mixed down to the surface as a result producing northwesterly winds between 10 and 20 mph with some gusts up to 35 mph.

This will help to pull a shot of arctic air around the backside of the surface low off the Carolina coast overnight. Temperatures should fall into the 15 to 20 degree range by daybreak on Saturday. The windy conditions will drive wind chill values to between -5 and 5 degrees. Thus, a Cold Weather Advisory remains in effect from 11 PM tonight through noon on Sunday.

SHORT TERM

(Saturday through Monday) Issued at 1140 AM CST Fri Jan 30 2026

With continued cloud cover and very cold air advection continuing, actual temperatures will only warm into the upper teens to around 25 degrees in a few locations on Saturday.

Winds will remain very breezy during the day. During the mid afternoon hours, winds values could improve in some areas into the lower teens. However, wind chill values will drop again quickly into the -5 to 5 degree range Saturday evening into the early morning hours on Sunday, with lows on Sunday morning dropping into the 10 to 15 degree range. Sunday should start to warm up just a bit, with highs only reaching the upper 20s to mid 30s. However, some locations could go above freezing for a few hours.

Another cold night is expected Sunday night (lows 18-24 degrees), but little winds is expected, so no significantly dangerous wind chill conditions are expected.

By early next week, return flow around the surface high from the originating from the Gulf states starts to modify the airmass in place significantly. Highs should rebound into he mid to upper 40s on Monday

LONG TERM

(Monday night through Friday) Issued at 1140 AM CST Fri Jan 30 2026

This warming trend will continue into the mid part of next week with highs climbing into the mid 50s to around 60 degrees by Tuesday. Towards the end of that timeframe Tuesday into Tuesday night models show another cold developing as a longwave trough axis swings southeast towards the Tennessee Valley region. This system looks much wetter and could bring us some heavier rainfall somewhere in the Tuesday night through elevated thunderstorm activity Tuesday night through Wednesday timeframe.

Colder air should be advected back into the area behind the departed cold front during the end of next week. Highs should drop back into the upper 30s/lower 40s again and lows back into the 20s.

AVIATION

(00Z TAFS) Issued at 640 PM CST Fri Jan 30 2026

Although VFR conditions are currently observed at the HSV/MSL terminals, these should progressively deteriorate by 2-4Z at both airports as atmospheric lift begins to strengthen rapidly ahead of an approaching upper-lvl trough. At this point, we expect an overcast layer of MVFR stratus to provide MVFR cigs (~1500 ft) for an extended period btwn 4-14Z. With periods of snow flurries (or perhaps lgt snow) also anticipated for much of this timeframe, we have included this as the prevailing weather condition. However, with flurries expected to be more prevalent than snow, we do not foresee the need for AWWs (for wintry precipitation) at this time. The base of the stratus layer will begin to lift arnd 14Z, but higher-end MVFR cigs could persist thru the end of the period. Sfc winds will remain from NNW, with speeds steadily increasing to 17G27 kts from 14-22Z. Due to winds this strong, LLWS should not be a concern, even with NNW flow just above the sfc in the 30-35 kt range.

HUN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

AL...Cold Weather Advisory from 11 PM this evening to noon CST Sunday for ALZ001>010-016.

TN...Cold Weather Advisory from 11 PM this evening to noon CST Sunday for TNZ076-096-097.