Speculation continued to bubble on Friday about the possibility of south Alabama (even the Florida Panhandle) getting some snow next week.

The National Weather Service said that areas along and south of Interstate 85 (as of Friday morning) look to have the better chances of seeing snow next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Snow can’t be ruled out as far south as Mobile and Tallahassee, Fla.

It’s far from a sure thing, however, and the National Weather Service cautioned that confidence was still on the lower side when it comes to the possibility of winter precipitation.

However, the weather service in Mobile has a 50 percent chance of snow showers in its forecast for Mobile on Tuesday. That’s something you don’t see very often.

The weather service noted that the weather system to watch was still in the northeast Pacific Ocean as of Friday morning, so there are a lot of details still to be worked out.

An area of low pressure could form and track eastward over the Gulf of Mexico early next week.

If the low forms (which is still not a lock) and where it tracks (still very murky) will determine whether any part of Alabama sees any winter precipitation, according to forecasters.

The timeframe to watch would be Tuesday into Wednesday.

The weather service said precipitation may move from west to east, starting in southwest Alabama, on Tuesday. It could last on and off through the day and come to an end in eastern Alabama sometime on Wednesday.

Forecasters continued to caution that confidence in the forecast is low. But, there were enough ifs to keep a chance of wintry precipitation in the forecast for the Monday night-Wednesday morning time frame, according to the weather service.

“The age-old question, will the cold and dry air settle into the region, preventing the moisture from being realized?” The weather service in Mobile said on Friday in a forecast discussion.

“Another question that remains is whether or not the low pressure develops over the Gulf, and just how far south this moves. We’ve mentioned it before that a more southern track (or no low at all) will limit the precipitation, while a more northern track will provide more of a chance for the precipitation to be realized.”

The weather service added: ” … also note that our probability for measurable frozen precipitation remains around 20-40 percent.”

Note the word “measurable” there.

The weather service in Tallahassee, Fla., which covers southeast Alabama as well as the Florida Panhandle and southern Georgia, said it was still too early to determine specific precipitation types as of Friday morning.

The weather service will be closely watching trends through the weekend and into next week.

The weather service in Birmingham said on Friday that if any winter precipitation were to materialize the best chances would be for areas along and south of Interstate 85, with lower chances farther north.