Weather to Offer Few Surprises in ’09

If you were a fan of the Southeast’s 2008 weather patterns, you may be in luck during the coming year. Dr. David Brommer, a University of Alabama climatologist, predicts 2009 will follow the weather pattern set by the current year – a pattern of normalcy.

So, if you were hoping this would be one of those rare years when your kids get to break out the snow boots in Alabama for a couple of days, don’t hold your breath.

“I definitely wouldn’t rule out snow,” Brommer says. But, he then dashed snow hopes just as they were rising. “I don’t mean a major accumulation, but something like what we saw last year, a nice dusting that was around for a couple of hours and gone.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we had some issues with ice – that’s a higher probability than snow.”

One reason Brommer, an assistant professor of geography in UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, predicts a lack of extreme weather for the Southeast is the absence of the so-called El Nino or La Nina effects. Atypical Pacific Ocean temperatures and their accompanying complications sometimes trigger extreme weather patterns. Neither effect will be present in 2009, however.

The widespread drought effects that hammered parts of the Southeast in 2006 and 2007 will likely continue lessening, he said.

“We’ve had a more normal precipitation year in 2008,” Brommer says. “That seems to be a trend that is going to go into the winter and maybe even the early spring. Temperature wise, we will see normal fluctuations as we would expect during this time of year.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a cold stretch in late December or early January where we get down into the teens – having high temperatures, like we saw last January, in the 20s – for a couple of days.”