If you want a real holiday treat, let me suggest you spend some time this week down in Demopolis for the annual “Christmas On The River”. Seems like about every river town has developed their own version, but this is the original, started way back in 1972. The celebration has become a week long event, but the big day is Saturday. A big arts and crafts show goes on all day at the square in the center of town; a championship barbeque cook-off takes place at the City Landing, a Children’s Day Parade winds through the streets of the town, there are various kinds of entertainment on stages in the downtown area.

The big event is still the annual nautical parade of floats “that really float” coming down the Tombigbee River, which begins at 6:30 Saturday night. These are animated floats, that in some cases have been developed for many years. As they float down the river, a huge fireworks display lights the sky over the river making for a beautiful scene. My first Christmas On The River was back in 1973, when I was in high school; I went down from Tuscaloosa to volunteer as an amateur radio operator to help coordinate the nautical parade. I have been to many of them over the years and it seems to get bigger and better every year. The most difficult years came when the Tombigbee was in flood, and the floats had to dodge huge logs and a variety of other objects in the river. But, somehow the show has always gone on rain or shine. The good news is that the weather looks excellent for the big day on Saturday, with ample sunshine and temperatures in the 50s during the day.

Demopolis is about 60 miles south of Tuscaloosa; take I-59/20 south from Tuscaloosa, and exit onto U.S. 43 at the Knoxville exit, and follow U.S. 43 into downtown Demopolis!

The morning video update is on the server now:

http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/video.hrb

NWS in Birmingham and Huntsville have issued flood watches for today and tonight for areas along and north of I-20. The severe weather threat continues to look minimal... no instability at the surface. So, the storms today will be elevated, and they don't get out of hand too often.

How about that cold air out west... as I write this Alamosa, Colorado is sitting at a slightly chilly 19 degrees below zero! Denver was near zero late last night, but southwest winds have kicked in there and they have warmed all the way up to 12 degrees right now, but the wind chill is -5. Limon, CO is at -12 with a wind chill of -26. Yikes.

No sign of harshly cold air in here for the next seven days, but for you cold weather fans there are some interesting developments at mid-month... watch the video for details!

Today we will wrap one of the wettest Novembers on record here in Alabama. At deadline time, the current rain total for Birmingham this month is 10.47”, and this is the third wettest November on the books. To get to second place, we will need 4.22” of rain between now and midnight tonight. Unlikely, but stranger things have happened. For the year, we are now at 57.03”, well above the normal amount we see in an entire year. Down in Mobile, the total for 2004 is a whopping 72.58”.

Looking ahead to December, we are still in our late fall tornado season, although generally speaking severe weather is not as likely during the second half of the month as the air gets cooler and more stable. The normal rain total here for December is 4.47”, and the wettest December on record came in 1961 when 13.98” was measured in Birmingham.

By the end of December, our normal high drops to 53, and the normal low 33. The coldest temperature measured during the month came 15 years ago, on December 23, 1989, when the mercury dropped to one degree at the Birmingham Airport.

Dreaming of a white Christmas? For Birmingham, where over 100 years of weather records exist, there has never been a white Christmas in the classic sense. Perhaps the closest resemblance to a white Christmas in Birmingham was in December, 1985. Flurries falling across north-central Alabama on Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning lightly dusted some areas around here, but snow was not deep enough to measure. Weather records show that 5.5 inches of snow fell at the city office way back on December 22, 1929. On December 24th, there was still 2.5 inches of snow on the ground at 7 :00 p.m. However, most of the snow melted Christmas Day when the temperature climbed to 51 degrees.

2004 Tropical Season recap—part 3: Gaston formed as a tropical depression on 8/27, about 140 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. It was named as a tropical depression the following day and made landfall on the South Carolina coast on the 29th. Post storm analysis indicates that Gaston was actually a hurricane at the time of landfall and It was recently upgraded after the fact. Gaston moved back over the water, regained tropical storm strength and caused serious flooding around Richmond, Virginia on 8/30, when a foot of rain fell in eight hours, drowning eight people.

Tropical Storm Hermine brought wins of 35 mph to eastern Massachusetts on August 31st, but it was already becoming extratropical.

Hurricane Ivan moved off the African coast on August 31st and became a depression on 9/2, a tropical storm on 9/3, a hurricane on 9/5 and a major hurricane the same day. Ivan caused serious damage and loss of life in the Windwards, especially Grenada. It became a major hurricane on the 9th and again on the 11th. It would reach top status again on the 13th. It caused heavy damage on the Cayman Islands, but missed Cuba. It moved into the Gulf and weakened slowly as it targeted the Central Gulf Coast. It made landfall near Gulf Shores on the 16th as a strong category two hurricane, but the storm surge damage was tremendous in Baldwin County and in Escambia County, Florida. Ivan caused tremendous damage all the way into North Central Alabama. It would describe a huge clockwise loop, exiting into the Atlantic, crossing Florida and becoming rejuvenated over the Gulf to make a second US landfall in Louisiana. Total damage in the U.S. was $10 billion. Ivan killed 90 in its rampage.

Jeanne was named on 9/14 as it was moving across the islands into the Caribbean. It caused devastating flash floods in the Greater Antilles. Jeanne followed roughly the same course as Frances some 20 days earlier. It made landfall as a Category Three storm near Stuart, Florida late on the evening of the 25th. Jeanne then moved northward and recurved over the Mid Atlantic States.

Hurricane Karl became a major hurricane, but remained over the open waters of the Atlantic. Lisa briefly became a hurricane over the open Atlantic. Tropical Storm Matthew made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana on October 10th. Finally, Subtropical Storm Nicole wandered over the open waters near Bermuda, affecting nothing but shipping.

It had to be the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. I have seen what seems like a zillion sunrises and sunsets at various times of the year in at least 32 states, including much of the desert areas of the West.

Tonight's (Sunday night) was the prettiest ever. I suspected it was going to be great because when I walked Little Miss Molly before leaving for church, I noticed at least five different types of clouds at various levels. Including cirrus, altocumulus, altostratus and cirrustratus. Thrown into the mix were jet contrails and virga (precipitation from clouds that evaporates before hitting the ground.) The virga was from a band of altostratus at about 12,000 feet which means it was snow.

Driving from Trussville down I-59 to Huffman (NE edge of Birmingham) it was like driving into a panoramic brilliant painting. All colors you could ask for. No camera with me.

I know I get excited about such as this but I am like a little kid in a candy store when it comes to sunrise and sunset scenes.

Anybody else get a look? Unforgetable.

After a bout with some kind of "24 hour bug"... I am plowing through weather data this afternoon and noticed another significant tornado reported down in Baldwin county yesterday:

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOBILE AL
115 PM CST SAT NOV 27 2004

..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..

1133 AM TORNADO SUMMERDALE 30.49N 87.70W
11/27/2004 BALDWIN AL EMERGENCY MNGR

*** 5 INJ *** EMA REPORTED 30 TO 50 HOMES DAMAGED IN
DOWNTOWN SUMMERDALE IN A 5 TO 6 BLOCK RADIUS. AT LEAST 6 OF THESE HOMES WERE RENDERED UNINHABITABLE. SOME INJURIES REPORTED...ESTIMATE 5 AT THIS TIME.

This has been quite a five stretch of severe weather here in Alabama...

The 2004 North Atlantic Hurricane season started off slowly. After dramatic predictions by experts like Bill Gray that we would experience a busy year, not a single storm formed in the months of June or July. When Alex formed on August 1st, it marked the latest start since 2000 when Alberto formed on August 4th. Alex became a hurricane on August 3rd as it brushed the North Carolina Outer Banks. While passing within 10 miles of Cape Hatteras, the hurricane reached an intensity of 100 mph. A wind gust of 91 knots in Hatteras Village is assumed to be accurate. A six foot storm surge parts of inundated Ocracoke Island. Alex would go on to become a Cat 3 hurricane as it moved over the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Bonnie formed and moved into the Caribbean on August 3rd. It then weakened into a tropical wave. By 8/9, TS Bonnie was in the Gulf of Mexico just north of the Yucatan. It moved NE and made landfall on the 12th near Apalachicola. But all eyes were on Charley. Hurricane Charley formed on 8/9 east of Barbados. By the 11th, it as south of Jamaica and crossed Cuba early on the morning of 8/13 as a Category 3 hurricane. It intensified rapidly in the hours just before landfall and made a sharp northeast turn, passing just north of Captiva Island. The full fury of its 145 mph winds slammed into Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, Florida. Charley crossed the state and exited into the Atlantic near Daytona Beach the following morning. It went on to move into South Carolina. There were ten deaths in Florida. The $15 billion in estimated damage makes it the second most damaging U.S. hurricane. TS Danielle stayed over the open Atlantic. Tropical Storm Earl was a short-lived storm that formed on August 13th. It weakened into a tropical wave as it crosses the Windward Islands. Hurricane Frances was identified as a tropical depression on 8/24 in the far eastern Atlantic. It was upgraded to a tropical storm on 8/25 and a hurricane the following day. By August 31st, Frances was north of Puerto Rico with top winds of 140 mph. On September 2nd, Frances blasted the Turks and Caicos islands in the Bahamas with winds of 145 mph. The Category 4 hurricane weakened to a Category 2 storm on September 3rd and 4th. On September 5th, a weakened Frances make landfall nears Sewell’s Point on the East Coast of Florida with top winds of 105mph. It crossed the Florida Peninsula and made landfall the next day near St. Marks in the Florida Big Bend area. More tomorrow.

By noon today, an additional 0.96 of an inch of rain had fallen in Trussville in NE Jefferson County. This brings the total for November so far to 13.23 inches! Here are some totals so far today (as of 12-noon)

0.61 at Birmingham Airport
0.88 at Tuscaloosa Airport
0.41 at Montgomery
0.59 at Mobile
1.26 in Meridian
1.00 in Hattiesburg

The rain is now east of Hattiesburg which means the UAB-Southern Miss football game, which kicks off at 2 PM, may be played without additional rain.

At Mobile, this morning's additional rain brings the 2004 total to a whopping 72.58 inches! That is an excess of 11.68 inches.

The 2004 North Atlantic Hurricane Season will come to an end officially on Tuesday. There is a disturbance in the far eastern Atlantic that could develop into a subtropical or tropical cyclone over the weekend, so I may be adding to these statistics before Monday. Even if that does not happen, the 2004 Atlantic season will be a memorable one for the four hurricanes which struck the southeastern United States in August and September. Three of these systems were major hurricanes at the point of landfall, including Hurricanes Charley, which struck Southwest Florida on Friday, August 13th, Hurricane Ivan, which struck the Alabama coast on September 16th and Hurricane Jeanne, which struck the East Coast of Florida on September 25th.

During the 2004 season, a total of 14 Atlantic tropical cyclones reached tropical storm or hurricane force. Nine of these went on to become hurricanes. Six of the hurricanes went on to become major hurricanes (category three or higher.) These numbers are far above the 53 year seasonal averages of 9.6 named storms per year and 5.9 hurricanes. In an average year, there are 2.9 major hurricanes. Interestingly, there were twenty three days this year on which major hurricanes were in progress. The long term average is 5.0 days per year. The 2004 hurricane season ties the 1926 hurricane season for the most days with intense hurricanes.

Some interesting facts: There were no named storms in June or July, which is unusual given the impressive final statistics. The eight named storms in August were the most ever in that month. The eight named storms that struck the United States were the most tropical storms or hurricanes to make a U.S. landfall since eight occurred in 1916. The five hurricanes that made landfall along the U.S. coast were the most since 1985, when six occurred. Also, Alex brought hurricane force winds to the North Carolina Outer Banks, even though it did not technically make landfall. Three hurricanes made landfall in the Sunshine State, the most since Cleo, Dora and Isbell landed in Florida in 1964. More 2004 hurricane facts all weekend.

Two more tornado tracks have been found by NWS survey teams; an F1 tornado near Detroit in Lamar county, and an F0 tornado in Marion county near Hamilton.

See the report here: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/al/public.html

Still no report on the Calhoun county damage; the NWS has simply been swamped by the widespread damage from Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. I would expect their full report on the final twister count early next week. That was quite an outbreak.

And, this is the third wettest November on record in Birmingham with a current total of 9.82". Our wettest November came in 1948 with a total of 15.25"; November 1929 is next on the list with 14.69".

This morning's official low in Birmingham was 33, so still no freeze "officially" on the books. Many surrounding areas did drop below freezing. Our latest first freeze on record was in 1921 on December 5. That record could very well be in danger this year...

And... just found out from our news department that we now have our first fatality from flash flooding. More details on our 6:00 newscast this evening...