Been a long time since we have received this much widespread rain in Alabama along with such large amounts.

At 8:40 pm, most of the rain in the state was over the SE half. However, additional thunderstorms were increasing over North Mississippi including some strong ones west of Tupelo.

To celebrate all this rain, here is a long list. These reports are from a variety of sources including 33/40 SkyWatchers, 33/40 SkyCam sites, 33/40 Online WeatherWatchers, Alabama Power Company and National Weather Service:

1.06 inches at Ashland
1.33 at Alpine (Talladega County)
0.53 at Ashville
1.14 at Blountsville
1.03 at Blount Springs
1.04 at Clanton
2.38 at Cordova
2.06 at Carbon Hill
1.11 at Hollins (Clay County)
1.04 at Haleyville
1.93 at Jasper
1.10 on Mt. Cheaha (Alabama Power)
0.96 at Oneonta
0.93 at Pell City
1.06 at Henry Dam (Ohatchee)
1.16 at Sayre
1.67 at Sylacauga
1.21 at Trafford
2.69 at Varons (Shelby County)
1.64 at Wilsonville
1.39 at Alabaster/Maylene
1.26 at Morris
0.95 in NE Trussville
0.73 at Hueytown/Virginia Mines
0.76 at Cullman Airport (Vinemont)
1.40 at Cullman Ag station
0.78 at Decatur Airport
0.91 at Huntsville Airport
3.30 at Winfield (near)
1.39 at Riverchase (ABC 33/40 Weather Office)
1.60 at Brilliant
1.33 at Hackleburg
2.00 at Fayette
1.10 at Crumly Chapel
1.03 at Birmingham Airport*
0.26 at Birmingham Airport* (Not sure which is correct)
0.97 at Montgomery Dannelly Field
0.61 at Tuscaloosa Airport
3.15 at Calera (Shelby County Airport, NWS Office)
0.95 at Mobile Airport
2.77 at Childersburg
1.05 in Downtown Birmingham
0.43 at Gadsden
0.74 at Gulf Shores
0.42 at Hamilton
1.68 at Jasper
1.57 at Mt. Cheaha (SkyCam)
1.08 at Inverness
1.53 in Jemison
1.26 at Alabaster (Stephanie Honeycutt)
1.20 at Alabaster (Michael Mills)

In some cases, we get more than one report from the same town

Most of the NW Half of Alabama is getting a break from showers early this evening, but the SE half of the state is still getting wet.

Areas NW of the Anniston-Clanton-Livingston on the "dry" side while extensive rain continues over the SE.

Could still be some more showers and possible thunderstorms later this evening over the north. At 7 pm, the cold front seemed to be over NW Mississippi. Some showers were developing mainly over North Mississippi extending down into SW Mississippi. These may not amount to a great deal because they will be moving into an extensive area of rain-cooled air.

Some additional amounts from today's big rain event:

1.53 inches in Jemison
1.01 in Cordova
1.34 in Inverness
2.21 at Childersburg
0.95 at Huntsville
0.75 in Concord/Hueytown
1.39 at Riverchase (ABC 33/40)
0.88 on Mt. Cheaha (Skycam)
1.26 at Alabaster (Stephanie Honeycutt)
1.20 at Alabaster (Michael Mills)

More rainfall amounts later...

Well, we don't know what today's widespread rain is worth.

But let's go ahead and call it a Billion $$ rain even if we don't know what we are talking about. Just think:

* Big $$ amounts saved on water bills because so many people can stop watering for at least a week

* Much less $$ loss in timber fires

* Resevoirs replenished

* Late crops saved

In addition to all that, this rain may help prevent another less-than-perfect autumn color season. When it is real dry this late in the year, a lot of the trees will simply go from green to brownout.

At 5 o'clock this afternoon, rain had diminished greatly in NW Alabama from about Birmingham to the west and northwest. Widespread rain continued from NE Alabama down through the central part of the state into SW Alabama. It was moderate to heavy. Not much lighting except over SW Alabama.

More showers were trying to develop over parts of North Mississippi and West Tennessee close to the cold front that will bring us some great weather over the next several days.

ALABAMA RAINFALL SO FAR TODAY
1.34 inches at Riverchase (33/40 Weather Office)
1.60 at Brilliant
1.33 at Hackleburg (the hometown of Sonny James)
0.84 at Alabaster
2.00 at Fayette
3.30 at Winfield (near)
1.25 at Maylene/Alabaster
1.11 at Helena
0.79 at Sterrett
0.66 at Birmingham Airport (through 3 PM)
1.39 at Jemison (North Chilton County)
0.81 in NE Trussvile

Nice cool 66 degrees atop Mt. Cheaha at 4 pm!

FLOOD ADVISORY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
426 PM CDT TUE SEP 12 2006

ALC015-027-029-111-115-117-121-130000-
426 PM CDT TUE SEP 12 2006

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM HAS ISSUED AN

* URBAN AND SMALL STREAM FLOOD ADVISORY FOR...
CLAY COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL ALABAMA
RANDOLPH COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL ALABAMA
SHELBY COUNTY IN CENTRAL ALABAMA
TALLADEGA COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL ALABAMA
CLEBURNE COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL ALABAMA
CALHOUN COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL ALABAMA
ST. CLAIR COUNTY IN CENTRAL ALABAMA

* UNTIL 700 PM CDT

* AT 426 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
HEAVY RAIN FROM CALERA TO TALLADEGA TO PIEDMONT. THE RAIN WAS
MOVING EAST AT 20 MPH.

DOPPLER RADAR AND OBSERVATIONS HAVE INDICATED THAT 1 TO 2 INCHES OF
RAINFALL HAS OCCURRED SINCE 1 PM CDT OVER SHELBY COUNTY NEAR
CALERA...COLUMBIANA...AND ALABASTER. THIS HEAVY RAIN WILL MOVE EAST
AND AFFECT THE TALLADEGA...ANNISTON...LINEVILLE...HEFLIN...AND
WEDOWEE AREAS.

AN ADDITIONAL ONE TO TWO INCHES OF RAINFALL ARE LIKELY IN THE
AFFECTED AREA THROUGH 7 PM CDT BEFORE THE HEAVY RAIN ENDS.

EXCESSIVE RUNOFF FROM THIS HEAVY RAINFALL WILL CAUSE FLOODING OF
SMALL CREEKS AND STREAMS...URBAN AREAS...HIGHWAYS...STREETS AND
UNDERPASSES AS WELL AS OTHER DRAINAGE AREAS AND LOW LYING SPOTS.

MINOR FLOODING IS OCCURRING OR IS IMMINENT. MOST FLOOD RELATED
DEATHS OCCUR IN AUTOMOBILES. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS WATER COVERED
BRIDGES...DIPS...OR LOW WATER CROSSINGS. NEVER TRY TO CROSS A
FLOWING STREAM...EVEN A SMALL ONE...ON FOOT. TO ESCAPE RISING WATER
MOVE UP TO HIGHER GROUND.

The Tuesday afternoon map discussion video is on the web, and available on iTunes:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

I sure wish I was home taking a nap right now. What a great day... low clouds, a soaking rain, and temperatures hovering in the 68 to 72 degree. We have been needing a day like this for a long time. Here are some quick current totals from our SKYCAM network:

Jasper 1.55"
Riverchase 1.15"
Downtown Birmingham 0.76"
Gulf Shores 0.73"

The rain data from the Hamilton site is not correct; it shows 0.42", but it is likely that almost two inches of rain has fallen at that site.

TONIGHT: The actual cold front is still near the Mississippi River, so although the rain has ended for now over the northwest part of the state, additional showers and storms should form tonight in advance of the front. Additional rainfall totals of over one inch are likely tonight. While SPC maintains a slight risk of severe storms along the front near the Mississippi River this evening, severe weather won't be a problem here simply because the air is too stable.

TOMORROW: The rain will end during the morning, and the sky should become partly sunny by afternoon as drier air works into the state.

THURSDAY-FRIDAY: Beautiful weather; maximum sunshine, low humidity ,and cool early mornings. We should be in the upper 50s both Thursday and Friday morning. Some low to mid 50s are possible in the cooler valleys across North Alabama.

THE WEEKEND: We stay dry. Sunny warm days, and clear pleasant nights. Great football weather; daytime highs will be in the mid to upper 80s.

NEXT WEEK: The 12Z GFS now suggests the best chance of rain with the next front will come late Monday and Monday night. The main upper support is well to the north of the state, and for now it doesn't look like a good rain producer (like the system we have today). But, we don't base a forecast from one model run, and that might change over the next few days. We will maintain a chance of rain for late Monday, Monday night, and Tuesday morning.

TROPICS: Out in the far eastern Atlantic tropical depression eight should be upgraded to tropical storm Helene soon, but all of the models turn the system northward over the open Atlantic, meaning it probably won't be a threat to any land mass. Same story for Gordon, the tropical storm in the central Atlantic... that one will remain over the open water as it moves northward. In the North Atlantic, Florence is becoming extratropical over the cooler water. Once again, no threat to the Gulf of Mexico for the next week or so. Sure looks like the majority of the tropical systems this season will be Atlantic storms. But, we still have a long way to go. Stay tuned.

I am aware of the slow performance on the ABC 33/40 site today... this blog is not on the same server, so you won't have those issues here. Our friends that host the 33/40 site tell us they in the process of a big upgrade so we hope to have the issue resolved soon on the abc3340.com domain. A ton of traffic over there today with active weather (for a change).

COOL STUFF: The new WeatherBrains podcast is great... it features David Black's and Bill Bussy's trip to the Kennedy Space Center this past weekend for the shuttle launch, and a great interview with Tim Coleman about gravity waves:

http://www.weatherbrains.com/

And, we have the ABC 33/40 10th Anniversary TV Special on the web if you want to watch... just go to our video page:

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

I will have the next map discussion video posted by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow... enjoy the rain!

Rain was widespread across North and Central Alabama early this afternoon--generally from Montgomery and Alexander City northward.

Heaviest rain was over North and NW Alabama generally from Lamar and North Pickens County northeastward to about Cullman and Boaz.

Moving generally toward the east.

Rain has greatly diminished over the NW corner of the state.

Very little lightning in Alabama at this time. However, there were some thunderstorms over East Central Mississippi...moving east.

Some Alabama rainfall amounts so far:

1.50 inches near Winfield (near Fayette-Marion County line)
1.15 in Fayette
1.24 in Carbon Hill (NW Walker County)
0.66 in Cordova
0.94 in Haleyville
0.73 in Jasper
0.12 in Alabaster

At mid-day, it was a cool 66 degrees in Huntsville, 68 in Muscle Shoals, 71 in Birmingham and Alabaster and 72 in Tuscaloosa. It was an almost chilly 63 atop Mt. Cheaha--Alabama's highest point.

Is that more enjoyable than the 92, 96, 98, 100, 102 days that we had so many of this summer?

The cold front...or we should say cool front...that will bring us some very nice weather in coming days was crossing the Mississippi River early this afternoon.

* 1.65 inches of rain overnight at Pontotoc, Miss., in the NE part of the state west of Tupelo

* 5.24 inches of rain at Winona, Miss., at junction of U.S. 82 and I-55. Nice kudzu country.

* 1.50 inches at Fayetteville, Ark., and 1.49 in Baton Rouge

* 112 was the hottest in the USA yesterday in Death Valley

* 25 was the low this morning down here in the Lower 48, West Yellowstone, Mont.

* 25 inches is what meteorologist estimate would be the average annual rainfall in Hawaii if the islands were flat. However, mountains and the NE trade winds say otherwise

* 486 inches--over 40 feet--is the average annual rainfall for Mt. Waialeale on the island of Kauai, making it the wettest spot on earth. The mountains milk rich moisture out of the NE trade winds because they are forced to rise.

* 50 is the approxmate percentage of the entire Middle East that is considered barren desert.

* 3 is how many cups of coffee I have had so far today. For come reason, my coffee drinking has dropped off greatly in the last several weeks. I have no idea why.

FINAL NOTES (NOT WORTH READING)
* Walked into one of my favorite Trussville eating places last week and first thing I saw was a Christmas tree already decorated and brightly lit. Horrors. I believe I will live to see the day when we break out the Christmas decorations on July 4.

* But I wish radio stations would not abruptly stop playing Christmas music at 11:59 pm on December 25. Please give us one extra day of music to ease out of the holiday.

* Very few eating places still give you a spoon to eat with--just a fork and a knife. How do they possibly think I can eat english peas with a fork. They roll off my fork and onto the floor. Then I have to crawl under the table and retrive them.

Rain is becoming extensive over a large part of Alabama--especially in NW Alabama.

The big wet weather system is moving toward the ENE and also expanding down into Central Alabama. At 10:45 am, the heaviest rain was:

* Over Franklin County
* Marion County
* Winston County
* Heaviest of all, however, was over North Central Mississippi

Already, 1.50 inches of rain has fallen near Winfield--a few miles from the Marion-Fayette County line. Reported by Kim Langston, the 3340 SkyWatcher for that area. Kim is probably dancing in the rain because she has missed so much rain in the last several months. In fact, we now call that area the Langston Desert.

Some rain late this morning had spread across North Alabama almost to the Georgia border and it was spreading into the Birmingham Metro area.

Check out this rainfall amount from North Central Mississippi:

5.24 inches at Winona.

That is an actual measurement--not a radar estimate. It was an overnight amount. Actually, radar estimates indicated considerably higher amounts over parts of North Mississippi. Winona is almost exactly half way across North Central Mississippi at the junction of good ole U.S. 82 and I-55. Been through there many times enroute and returning from western trips.

A COOL NORTH ALABAMA MORNING
It was only 68 degrees at 10 am at Muscle Shoals and Huntsville with steady moderate rain. Tuscaloosa was reporting 72 with moderate rain.

This is going to be a significant wet weather system affecting a wide area.

TROPICS
None of the tropical action is a threat to the USA at this time, so please check this link for worlds of information on Florence, Gordon, and TD No. 8 which may become Helene:

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

Thanks to ABC 33/40 Weather Watcher Jack Watkins for this image of the sunset last night at Panama City Beach...

I have posted the ABC 33/40 tenth anniversary special on the web if you missed it on TV this past Sunday night... the show is available on both Quicktime and Windows Media, and is on our video page:

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


Enjoy!