BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) -- Over the past week, the forecast was always coming down to the battle between the dry, cold air at the surface and the moisture to our south. To get snow in the Deep South, normally we are searching for more cold air. This storm was the opposite case, where the air became too cold and thus too dry.
Across the southern third of Alabama, they were in the sweet spot. This is where the air wasn't too cold and not too dry, meeting the moisture at the perfect time to create a wintry wonderland. The entire atmospheric column was saturated from the cloud to the surface, allowing for the snow to reach the ground.
Much of central Alabama avoided the snow, however, but did you know it was falling from the clouds all day long? Yes, even heavy snow at times was falling to around 5,000 to 7,000 feet aloft before evaporating, as it was forced to pass through an extremely stout layer of dry air. This explains why your radar may have showed snow falling throughout Tuesday because the radar beam was passing several thousand feet aloft, where it was snowing. In reality, that snow was never reaching us here at the surface because the dry air won, continuing to shove all of our moisture and winter mess to the Gulf Coast.
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