The 2005 ABC 33/40 Alabama Severe Weather DVD is now ready for you to pick up! We planned this DVD project last year, and totally expected it to be our first DVD project. But, when Hurricane Ivan blew through the state last September, we rushed an Ivan DVD project to the public as a fund raiser for the American Red Cross through our partner Compass Bank. That one was a huge success, and sold out within two weeks.

The new DVD is totally free; you simply have to go by a sponsor location to pick one up. We selected some of the best Alabama severe weather events since we have been on the air; including the April 8, 1998 F5 tornado that killed 32 people in the Birmingham metro area, the December 16, 2000 F4 tornado in Tuscaloosa that killed 11, the Palm Sunday tornado tragedy at the Goshen United Methodist Church in Piedmont on March 27, 1994, and the tornado outbreak on November 10,2002 that killed 11 people across Walker county, including Carbon Hill. For each storm, you will see our actual on-air coverage here on ABC 33/40, lots of video of the damage, and some very moving stories about the people who were affected. Our best guy, Bill Castle, put the video segments together, so you know it is all good.

We also have a mini-SKYWARN school on the DVD hosted by our own Brian Peters, who trained over 6,000 spotters in Alabama during his many years with the National Weather Service in Birmingham. The 2005 ABC 33/40 Alabama Severe Weather DVD is available at all Publix locations, Bedz Express, Med Center Mazda, Trussville Mazda, and Trinity Contractors. They are free, but hurry and get one as I expect the demand to be heavy!

The Thursday afternoon video is on the server and ready for viewing:

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

Once again, there is simply no reason to change our forecast package through Monday of next week. Very cold night, with most places in the 20 to 25 degree range by daybreak tomorrow.

Dry with a warming trend tomorrow and Saturday, and then more rain back in here Sunday and Monday.

Beyond that period all bets are off. Complex split flow develops, and I am not sure the GFS is doing a good job with the cold air to the north. We will have to watch for a shallow layer of colder air getting in here... maybe even less than three thousand feet thick.

One way or another it looks like a wavy Polar front will be just north of us for much of next week. Will be a fun pattern to watch and forecast.

FYI... sure looks snowy now around Gatlinburg. Those folks in the Great Smoky mountains will see over two inches this afternoon. I see in J.B.'s discussion that Johnson County schools are closed today up in Tennessee due to the snow. At 2:00 p.m. Crossville, TN was reporting snow and 27 degrees.

The Thursday morning video is on the server:

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

Interesting to note Muscle Shoals is reporting snow flurries as I write this, and we see some light snow on radar through parts of extreme north Alabama and Tennessee.

The wind today will have a little bite to it. Temperatures will reach only the mid 40s despite the returning sunshine, and we drop into the 20 to 25 degree range by daybreak tomorrow.

Quite frankly there is little change in our forecast package for the next five days; we will need to raise the high temperature forecast a bit on Saturday, and I am sure nobody has a problem with that. Still looks wet in the Sunday-Monday time frame.

We have the split flow next week, but the polar vortex remains far enough to the north to keep the cold air north of us, or so the models say now.