Parts of east-central Alabama, including the Birmingham metro area, will be under an extreme cold warning, which means that dangerously cold wind chills are expected. Very cold temperatures are possible during the day on Monday as well, with many locations staying below freezing all day.

Colder-than-normal temperatures are expected to remain in Alabama, with a system bringing bitterly cold air into the state next week. And the long-range forecasts from the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center are calling for the pattern of below-normal conditions to remain in place until Feb. 7, at least.

An extreme cold watch has been issued for southwest Alabama and will be in effect from Sunday night through Monday morning. The counties affected are Choctaw, Washington, Clarke, Wilcox, Monroe, Conecuh, Butler, Crenshaw, Escambia, Covington, Mobile and Baldwin.

The good news/bad news is that bitterly cold air will move into the state overnight Sunday, dropping morning lows into the mid-teens for north Alabama and the upper teens as far south as Montgomery. Daytime highs may not get out of the 30s in central Alabama until Wednesday,