A storm center in the Gulf of Mexico and the arrival of cold air from the north are making for an interesting forecast. It looks like there could be some significant snow accumulations to our east in Alabama and Georgia on Saturday.

Even with temperatures above freezing this evening, I had several reports of sleet, north of Jackson. While it may seem strange, this is not unusual. Dry air about 10,000 feet above the ground is responsible for the sleet. As the rain falls into the dry air, the air cools to freezing because of the rain evaporating. This cold layer of air freezes the rain drops as it falls through the old layer. Once the initial cooling takes place the air warms and the precipitation turns to all rain. The evening is not the hard part of the forecast, early Saturday morning is.

The storm center is in a perfect place for a southern snowstorm. Down in the Gulf of Mexico. Problem is, we do not have cold enough air this evening. As the storm moves to the Florida panhandle Saturday morning we will be on the back edge of the rain. At that time, the air could get cold enough for a brief change over to snow. Unfortunately for snow lovers we look to get very little snow here. Worst case scenario would be a little dusting on the grass...probably for areas north and east of Jackson. Even at that, I am expecting temperatures in the morning to be above freezing so there should not be any travel problems.

Atlanta could see snow but even there there is a chance most of the moisture could pass to the south.

By the way, the last time we had an accumulating snow here in Jackson was December 31, 2000!