Most of North Alabama touched the low 60s Monday with the help of skies quickly clearing by late morning.  These clear skies also lead to perfect conditions for the Great Conjunction Monday evening.  Saturn and Jupiter were at their closest position in the sky: 0.1°apart from each other in the southwest sky. 

Below is a picture sent in by viewer Johnny Raper.  You can see Jupiter's moon and can even make out the rings of Saturn. 

The weather pattern remains quiet on Tuesday with more sunshine and temperatures in the 50s. By Wednesday afternoon, our next system will be approaching from the west. Ahead of a cold front, widespread showers are expected to arrive Wednesday afternoon and evening.  The heaviest rain is expected late Wednesday and possibly enough instability for a line of non-severe thunderstorms to form.

As the front moves through overnight, very cold Arctic air will be moving in to North Alabama. The window is still there for some of this rain to end with a few snow flakes early Christmas Eve morning. However, given the cold Arctic air moving in will be very dry and the lack of available moisture as the front moves out of the area, that window for a brief transition remains small. Nonetheless, some areas could see a dusting on grassy and elevated surfaces by Christmas Eve afternoon. We are not expecting impacts on the roads at this point, but we will continue to monitor the trends and fine tune the forecast. What we can say with confidence is many spots will pick up over an inch of rain Wednesday afternoon through early Christmas Eve morning. Roads will definitely be wet, so use caution if you still have travel plans for the Christmas holiday.