Dangerous Evening Ice; Winter Storm Warning

MOBILE, Alabama -

A Winter Storm Warning continues tonight for the entire News 5 area. Rain, sleet and freezing rain are slowly diminishing but anything other than light snow hitting the ground will freeze on contact. The freezing sleet and freezing rain will be seen all the way to the beaches. It will transition to light snow before ending in the next few hours but dont expect much snow accumulation.

Ice on roadways is making travel hazardous and in some places, impossible. Do not travel. Bridges and overpasses are frozen, and roads with slush on them now will freeze further as temperatures fall. If power lines ice over and get weighed down, or if tree branches ice over and fall on power lines, there is the possibility of power loss. Evening temperatures are in the middle 20s inland and near 30 right at the beaches. North winds will be between 10 mph and 18 mph producing a wind chill in the teens.

The precipitation ends overnight, followed by extremely cold weather. Lows tonight will be in the lower 20s, with wind chills in the single digits. A hard freeze is possible. Your start to Wednesday will include iced roads, walkways, and pavement, and frozen vehicle doors and windshields.

Well only hover near freezing for a high tomorrow. Skies should brighten as we go through the afternoon. Tomorrow night may deliver another hard freeze with temperatures near or below 20. As you are out tomorrow taking pictures, share them with us on the WKRG Facebook page. TIP: it's always better to post the picture, rather than to message it. It makes it quicker and easier for us to see, use, and share them. ...and of course, take the photos in landscape (horizontal), rather than portrait (vertical) so that it fits better on TV!

Unless you get solid sunshine tomorrow, some areas may not see iced surfaces and vehicles thaw until Thursday. With two nights in a row of extremely cold weather, make sure to take all of the safety steps to protect people, pets, pipes and plants.

By Friday we reach 60. The weekend places us back in the upper 60s with some showers each day, but that will be just plain rain.

Free tools for keep up with precipitation- Watch WKRG digital channel 5.2 or use our web interactive radar http://www.wkrg.com/category/260193/weather-interactive-radar to see the radar. Remember that the colors on the radar for sleet or freezing rain (pink), and snow (white), are estimated by math equations. Since the radar shows what's above the ground, you can't be certain what the precipitation is by the time it reaches the ground. That is controlled by the temperature in the layers of air in and beneath the clouds.

Be a citizen scientist and report what reaches the ground where you are using a free weather app called mPING http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/ping/ This helps meteorologists and computer modellers better-understand and forecast ice, sleet and snow. The mPING display shows you what others have reported http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/ping/display/ Note that the greatest number of reports come from larger population areas so represent your small town! It's critical for everyone to know where there may be freezing rain.

Sign up for our free text alerts for your county on your older cell phone http://www.wkrg.com/category/260367/mgna-text-alerts

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Dangerous Evening Ice; Winter Storm Warning