I wrote this sitting on the deck of a ocean side restaurant in Jacksonville Beach on Thursday night, enjoying seafood and a nice southeasterly breeze off the Atlantic Ocean. By the time you read this on Monday morning, Tropical Storm Arlene will be in the books. Just wondering what the rest of the North Atlantic Hurricane Season will bring. I am sure that most of you know that the National Hurricane Center uses a rotating list of names for storms in the Atlantic and Pacific. Until 1979, the list for the North Atlantic included only female names. The first male storm in the Atlantic basin was Hurricane Bob in July 1979. This year’s list was first used in 1981.

There are six different sets of names. The names are reused unless a particular storm is especially notorious. Some of the retired names include blockbusters like Frederic, Allen, Hugo, Camille and Betsy. Let’s look back at how the storm names on our current list have behaved by the retirees and compare with the other lists. The 1981, 1987 and 1993 seasons were uneventful. Only two storms have been retired from the list we are using this year (list “C.”). That is 1999’s Floyd and Lenny. In 1999, Floyd caused the largest peacetime evacuation in U.S. history and produced tremendous flooding in eastern North Carolina. Lenny was a late season hurricane that wreaked a lot of havoc in the Caribbean as it moved from west to east, an unusual direction in the Caribbean. The two retired names off List “C” is tied for the fewest of any of the lists with list “D.” List “A” has seen 7 retirees, “B” 10, “E” has had 7, and list “F” has seen four names put out to pasture since 1979.

The 1999 version of Arlene was a tropical storm that stayed out to sea over the Atlantic in mid June. It passed within 100 miles of Bermuda, but did not cause any problems. In 1993, Tropical Arlene formed over the South Central Gulf of Mexico in mid-June. The 1987 A storm was a hurricane that formed off the North Carolina coast on August 8th, described a loop off the East Coast, passing near the Bahamas and Bermuda before heading out to sea. In 1981, Arlene was a May tropical storm that formed over the western Caribbean, passed over eastern Cuba and moved out across the open Atlantic.

List “C” will reappear in 2011. Let’s hope it is the same set of names then.

If you can check out this link in the next hour or so, you'll see an interesting example of sun glint on a satellite photo. The view is of the Atlantic Basin, and in the the middle of the Carribbean is a large cloud mass being monitored by the National Hurricane Center. Watch just to the left of the cloud mass and you'll see a bright spot that seems to move ashore into Central America. That is sunlight reflecting off the water surface.

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/HURRLOOPS/huvsloop.html

Just kind of neat. I even like sun dogs!!

-Brian-

Late this afternoon, the center of what was once Arlene was approaching Evansville, Indiana!

Below is a list of rainfall totals from Arlene. Notice how erratic the rainfall amounts can be. Nearly impossible to forecast that for any one community in advance because it depends greatly on how many of those spiral bands decide to aim at your house. These totals vary from 24-hour amounts to storm totals. See also a short list of peak wind gusts at the end of this report.

1.76 inches at Taylorville (south of Tuscaloosa)
1.01 at Greystone Farms, peak wind gust 28 mph (North Shelby County)
0.91 at Greystone Cove (North Shelby, from James Spann)
1.10 at Ashland and Alexander City
2.37 at Smith Dam and in Blountsville
2.82 at Bankhead Lock and Dam
0.58 in Cordova
0.29 at Fort Payne
2.82 at Gaylesville
2.33 at Manchester (Walker County)
2.30 at Holt Dam (east edge of Tuscaloosa)
0.36 at Martin Dam
0.48 at Steele (North St. Clair County)
2.13 in Trafford
0.70 in Vincent
0.51 in Wadley
1.13 in Clanton
2.02 in Fayette
2.49 in Hamilton
2.80 in Jasper
4.15 in Livingston
2.49 in Selma
0.95 in Union Springs
0.52 in Wedowee
2.82 in Gaylesville
0.59 at Anniston Airport
0.61 at Auburn
0.78 at Birmingham Airport
2.37 at Mobile/Downtown (Brookley Field)
4.39 at Mobile Regional Airport
0.97 at Shelby County Airport
1.04 in Decatur
0.85 in Dothan
1.89 in Evergreen
0.70 at Montgomery Airport
1.67 at Muscle Shoals
0.21 in Troy
2.16 at Tuscaloosa Airport
0.35 in Pinson
2.49 in Selma
0.60 in Crossville
0.76 in Cullman
0.74 at DeSoto State Park
0.08 at Berlin (Cullman County)
0.44 at Henagar
1.38 at Hodges (Franklin County)
1.92 at Red Bay
1.43 at Russellville
1.23 at Scottsboro Lakeside
0.24 at Nickajack Dam
0.87 at Wilson Dam
2.15 at Wright (nearly as far as you can go in the NW corner of Ala.)
0.48 in Town Creek
0.01 in Moulton?
0.22 at Athens
0.18 at Capshaw
0.80 at Huntsville Airport
0.19 at Huntsville/Blue Springs
0.17 at Huntsville/Clinton Avenue
0.28 at Madison
0.32 at Albertville
0.28 at Guntersville Dam
0.30 at Falkville
0.40 in NW Morgan County
0.86 at Pence (Morgan County)
3.25 at Atmore

Peak wind gusts in and around the Gulf Coast:
43 mph at Ft. Walton Beach with rainfall 2.07
38 mph at Santa Rosa Beach, rainfall 1.85
42 mph at Shalimar, Fla., rainfall 2.16
55 mph at Navarre Beach, Fla., rainfall 1.58
35 mph at Brookley Field, Mobile
45 mph at Destin
40 mph at Mary Ester (Near Ft. Walton)
46 mph at Dauphin Island
60 mph at the Nevarre Beach Fire Department

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
It is interesting to note that Mobile Airport has received 30.03 inches of rain in less than 15 weeks--since March 1. That's 9.82 inches wetter than normal for that period. I am not certain on this, but I believe the total at Birmingham Airport as of this morning had reached 26.40 inches for the year, which is only 1/4 inch away from wiping out our rainfall deficiency. It wasn't too long ago that our deficiency was well over 5 inches!

Video map discussion should be available at

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

Arlene is about to be history for Alabama as the center of the remnants of Arlene slowly work their way by Florence and into middle Tennessee. Most of the rain associated with Arlene is now east, north, and northwest of the center of circulation. It would appear that western Alabama and eastern Mississippi got the 3 to 5 inches we've been forecasting since about Thursday of last week. The area and amounts from radar estimates lined up pretty well with the forecast we made. Forecasting amounts and locations is not an easy task with so many factors to consider. Fortunately, Arlene was rather well behaved as tropical systems go. And moving steadily the threat of flash flooding was somewhat reduced.

Turning our attention to the coming week, we return to a summertime pattern with mainly afternoon and evening showers. Temperatures will jump right back into the mid and upper 80s. However, on Wednesday, a rather unusual June cold front (or a drying front since it will bring drier air but only slightly cooler air) is forecast to move across Alabama and into the northern Gulf. The drier air will be a welcome relief from the high humid and the rainy weather we've had.

Hope you have a great week. Stay with ABC 3340 for the latest weather information.

-Brian-

What is left of Arlene was centered over NW Alabama near the Mississippi border early this morning. Still moving quickly northward and still showing a distinct circulation.

Most of the rain is near that circulation.

All Flash Flood Watches have been discontinued. The weather will settle back down to typical June in Alabama.

Well, it's 1 o'clock on Sunday morning, grogginess is winning out, so I will fold and hit the sack.

Appears little danger now of any major problems for the rest of the night because of Arlene. If something happens, we will be up and at it!

She is moving northward through West Alabama. Based on surface map plots, her broad circulation seems to be centered near Greensboro in Hale County. Almost all of the precipitation is on the north and NE side of the center.

By daybreak, the center should be up in NW Alabama.

With plenty of deep moisture stacked over Alabama, there will be scattered showers and thunderstorms across the state today. Maybe fewer in number tomorrow (Monday)

There will be reviews of Arlene later including an analysis of rainfall totals and peak winds.

Overall, it appears that Alabama came through relatively well