I am promoting our new Skywatcher team on ABC 33/40 News tonight at 10:00; the information you need is below!


The ABC 33/40 Pinpoint Doppler Radar is an invaluable tool; providing our team of meteorologists storm data in real time, including velocity and specific storm structure information that helps to identify tornadoes and other areas of severe weather. But, all radar beams go in a straight line, and the beam can be several thousand feet off the ground due to the curvature of the earth. For this reason, obtaining "ground truth" is crucial in the warning process.

For this reason, we are in the process of forming a large team of "Skywatchers", who report weather conditions to the ABC 33/40 Weather Center using instant message technology. Our team of Skywatchers also send us digital pictures and video of weather for use on ABC 33/40 News and our web site.

We have over 80 members of the team now, and are always looking for more. We need people who:

*Have taken at least the basic SKYWARN class, or attended one of the ABC 33/40 Storm Alert XTREME sessions we offer in the fall each year (or have a good understanding of thunderstorm structure)

*Have a digital camera, digital video equipment, or both

*Good Internet connectivity for sending images and video to us, and for instant message communications

*Love weather and want to learn more

*Can work in a controlled instant message environment with our other team members

*Are 16 years of age or older

We especially need Skywatchers from rural counties where there are no "official" observations.

Interested in joining the team? Send me an e-mail message:

jspann@abc3340.com

Tell me a little about yourself and we will be in touch with additional information!

Look for reports and images from our team of Skywatchers on ABC 33/40 News, and on our blog!

James Spann, CBM
Lead Meteorologist
ABC 33/40

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

http://www.jamesspann.com/

Be sure and read the other posts today... some very interesting reading.

DRY DAYS AHEAD: Clouds are breaking up across Alabama, and we should be clear tonight as sinking air will win the battle. Still a good chance we go into the upper 50s both tomorrow and Friday morning. Looks like sunny days and clear nights through Saturday, with low humidity levels. Needless to say, great weather for both the high school and college football games this weekend. Sunday will be dry as well, but humidity levels will be on the rise and a few scattered clouds will show up.

While we enjoy a nice weekend, a big storm will bring heavy snow to the northern Rockies for the first time this season, and that will move out into the northern plains Sunday and Monday. That storm will swing a cold front down this way, and will bring our next chance rain early next week. Still looks like a chance of showers and thunderstorms Monday afternoon, Monday night, and into Tuesday (at least during the morning hours). Still doesn't look like a setup for a severe weather or heavy rain problem.

The 12Z GFS shows some nice thickness drops following that front, and looks like we will enjoy highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s by the middle of next week. That might even be a chance for some of the cooler valleys to reach the upper 40s for the first time this season.

LONG RANGE: The GFS still suggests any tropical systems in the Atlantic will stay away from the U.S. for the rest of September. Great news, except maybe for the Weather Channel, or the hundreds of nice looking reporters who like their hair blowing in the wind (a little jealousy here, maybe

TROPICS: Hurricane Gordon will remain in the middle of the Atlantic, no threat to land. And, it still looks like tropical depression eight (which should be Tropical Storm Helene soon) will recurve into the open Atlantic.

Enjoy your Wednesday evening... I will have the next map discussion video ready by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!

Colder air is beginning to mobilize in Canada that will bring the first snow of the season to the USA Northern Rockies and part of the Central Rockies.

* The first snow is expected in the mountains of North Utah by late Friday night.

* Inside Yellowstone National Park, occasional snow showers will develop Friday night and will continue through most of the weekend. Low temperatures will be around 25 and highs near 35.This is going to be a moisture-laden Northern Rocky Mountain storm so you can bet some of the highest elevations will get a good covering.

THUNDERSNOW
* In the Colorado Mountains, snow showers late Saturday and Saturday night will also feature some thunderstorms. (Translation: Thundersnow This includes such popular places as Aspen, Vail and Leadville.

I will never forget sliding off an ice covered street into a small ravine in Leadville one night because I was too stubborn to buy chains. They had trippled the price because of an oncoming storm.

First, be sure and scroll down and see the touching story from James A. Lee concerning his father and Hurricane Frederic. Also, since there are no tropical threats to the USA at this time, please refer to this link for all of the discussions and forecasts:

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

This will probaby be the longest list of rainfall amounts that we have posted since the 33/40 blog was born. We think the public has yearned for a big rain event like this more than they want to see a good football game.

It would be interesting to know how many gallons of water fell on Alabama in the last 24 to 36 hours. That is impossible to tell, of course, but it would boggle your mind. Every drop of rain that falls on Alabama ends up in the Gulf of Mexico, if it lives that long. Some of it soaks in, of course, and some eventually winds up underground in an aquafur. The route the water takes to get to the Gulf of Mexico varies considerably. The rain that falls on Homewood and other over-the-mountain areas takes a different route than the rain that falls on Birmingham. Amazingly, the rain that falls in places like Scottsboro, Huntsville, Decatur and Florence flows west and north through West Tennessee and SW Kentucky all the way to Cairo, Illinois and then heads south down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.

Enough of that. I am very interested in hydrology, so that is probably an overkill. Here is the list and to make it easier to comprehend, we have listed the rainfall by categories:

AMOUNTS MORE THAN 4 INCHES:
5.45 inches at Alpine (Talladega County)
5.53 at Childersburg (from an Alabama Power Company gauge)
6.20 at Childersburg (33/40 skywatcher)
4.24 at Varons (Alabama Power gauge in Shelby County)
4.73 at Wilsonville (Gaston Steam Plant)
4.92 at Shelby County Airport (NWS Office)

AMOUNTS 2-4 INCHES:
3.40 inches at Ashland
2.40 at Cordova
2.96 at Centre (Weiss Dam)
2.06 at Carbon Hill
3.04 at Dearmanville (east of Anniston)
3.44 at Hackneyville (Tallapoosa County)
2.71 at Hollins (Clay County)
2.75 at Jackson Shoals (Talladega County)
3.61 at Mt. Cheaha (Alabama Power)
2.86 at Newell (Randolph County)
3.40 at Henry Dam (Ohatchee)
3.49 at Sylacauga
2.15 at Vincent
2.43 at Montgomery Dannelly Field
3.30 at Winfield (near Fayette-Marion County line)
3.00 plus at Montevallo
2.80 at Centreville
2.00 at Jasper
3.38 at Wedowee
3.49 at Wadley
3.44 at Hackneyville (Tallapoosa County)

AMOUNTS BETWEEN 1 AND 2 INCHES:
1.52 at Anniston Airport
1.70 at Alexander City
1.22 at Bald Rock (off I-20 east of Birmingham)
1.16 at Blountsville
1.98 at Bankhead Lock and Dam (NE Tuscaloosa County)
1.26 at Blount Springs
1.75 at Logan-Martin Dam
1.41 at Clanton
1.70 at Lay Dam
1.32 at Horseshoe Bend
1.04 at Haleyville
1.94 at Jasper
1.00 at Oneonta
1.74 at Pell City
1.84 at Roanoke
1.21 at Sayre (West Jefferson County)
1.82 at Martin Dam
1.21 at Trafford
1.32 at Mitchell Dam
1.75 at Wadley
1.84 at Jordan Dam
1.68 at Oxford
1.05 in Huffman (NE edge of Birmingham)
1.14 at Gardendale
1.18 at Vinemont (North Cullman County)
1.70 at Columbiana
1.10 at Crumly Chapel
1.26 at Morris
1.05 at Crossville
1.39 at Cullman Agricultural Station
1.82 at Anniston Airprot
1.35 at Birmingham Airport
1.08 at Mobile Airport
1.60 at Brilliant
1.33 at Hackleburg (home town of Sonny James)
1.26 at Alabaster
1.78 in Clanton
1.25 in Helena
1.03 in NE Trussville (where Little Miss Molly lives)

AMOUNTS LESS THAN 1 INCH:
0.67 in Ashville
081 in Collinsville
0.62 at Gadsden
0.48 at Black Creek (only 0.89 in the last 3 weeks)
0.76 at DeSoto State Park
0.79 at Cullman Airport
0.94 at Huntsville Airport
0.61 at Tuscaloosa Airport
0.60 at Pinson
0.68 in Selma
0.85 in Prattville

I am sure this epistle will not make the best seller list, but it gives you a chance ot know how much rain you had in or near your community regardless of what part of the state you live in. You may note that we have listed some locations twice. That is because we have more than one source in some places. These amounts are from 33/40 skywatchers, private weather stations, the Alabama Power network and official NWS stations.

I have to share this touching story that came in by e-mail this morning:


I happened across your blog this morning because I was doing some "Googling" on Hurricane Frederick. I have a particular interest in that hurricane. I grew up in South Carolina and lived there for 36 years. I know hurricanes fairly well having lived through an exciting night with Hugo and the many hurricanes we've experienced since moving here to Forida a few years ago. But no hurricane has yet replaced Frederick in significance to me.

In 1979, I had just turned 19. I had recently been laid off from a construction job and was looking forward to starting at the University of South Carolina as a freshman the next January. My father, Isaac (Ike) Lee, had, only a couple of months before, started a new job with a trucking company hauling concrete pipe. (The recession of the 1970s had left him mostly unemployed for about two years.) The pipe plant was in Columbia and the construction site to which he delivered on a daily basis was in Atlanta. He would leave every morning around 4:00 to be at the site in time to meet the construction crew, unload, and be back home around 2:00 p.m. September 13, though, was to be different.

Twelve days after his 45th birthday, my Dad was leaving the job site around 10:00 a.m. and the remnants of Frederick were blowing through. By time it reached Atlanta, Frederick was a tropical storm, but the worst damage done there was by the tornadoes spawned by it. That was what caught him.

According to another driver following behind him, as he crossed an overpass on I-285 near the Atlanta airport, his truck was blown off the bridge and onto highway surface below, killing my Dad instantly. Weather reports had shown signs of a tornado in the area at about that time. Because there was no sign sign of collision with the bridge, other than a tire scuff on the curb, accident investigators believed that a tornado had lifted the truck and empty trailer over the guard rail and dropped it, nose first, onto the road below.

My family has ever since had a great respect for the power of nature and the value of each individual life taken in such events. Too often natural disasters are only interesting if the damage in dollars and lives reach record numbers. But we must always remember that even when there is "minor" damage and few lost lives, those results are life shattering to the families involved.

I don't live in your city, so I'm not familiar with your television work, but thanks for the story on your blog, and for the professional coverage of the real stories, not just the pretty reporters in the wind.

James A. Lee
Bartram Trail High School
Social Studies Department Chair

The Wednesday morning map discussion video is on the web, and available on iTunes:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

I watched the "Apple show" yesterday with interest... the new iPods and the iTunes movies are nice, but the big item was the iTV box which is coming in January 2007... with that box you will be able to watch anything from iTunes on your TV. Yep, that means you can watch our Internet videos on your living room couch on that nice big TV you have. Too cool. There will be a remote control with the box, and the wireless ability to connect with your computer anywhere in the house.

SOAKED: Scroll down for J.B.'s long list of rain totals from yesterday... we had reports of over three inches of rain in Montevallo, Calera, and Childersburg. My total in nothern Shelby county was 1.18". You can also see our online weather watcher reports anytime here:

http://theweathercompany.com/cgi-bin/wxwatcher.pl

Our front is not well defined this morning, but seems to be over northwest Alabama. The showers on radar this morning are over East Alabama, and as dry air takes over the rain moves out this morning, and some sun should return by midday.

Still no change in our thinking, beautiful weather tomorrow and Friday with lots of sunshine and low humidity. A great chance we see upper 50s during the early morning hours.

The weekend will be dry and warm with afternoon highs in the 85 to 89 degree range. We will be watching a vigorous storm coming out of the rockies this weekend; the GFS is suggesting blizzard conditions will be possible over North Dakota on Sunday and Sunday night. Summer is long gone for these folks. Severe weather will be possible Sunday and Monday across the plains, possibly as far south as Oklahoma and Arkansas.

NEXT WEEK: Looks like we will have a chance of showers and storms Monday night and Tuesday with the front coming down from the northwest. The main upper support will be way up north, so for now the chance of heavy rain or severe weather here in Alabama looks small.

LONG RANGE: The GFS continues to keep all tropical systems in the open Atlantic through the end of the month, and the 00Z run does hint at a very strong upper trough moving over us in the September 27-29 time frame. Sure, that is voodoo land, but if by chance something like that does happen it might bring a risk of strong storms, and then a shot of much cooler air that might get us down in the 40s.

TROPICS: All of the active systems are no threat to the U.S. Hurricane Gordon will move slowly north through the middle of the Atlantic for the next five days, and tropical depression 8 (which should become Tropical Storm Helene), will also recurve before reaching longitude 50W. We do note a convective blow-up over the far southwest Gulf of Mexico; we can't keep our eyes off the ball, you know. It is easy to be lulled to sleep with all of these open Atlantic systems.

ABC 33/40 SKYWATCHERS: I am going to promote our new team of volunteer storm spotters on ABC 33/40 News tonight, so look for a mass new of new recruits. These people report weather to us in real time via Instant Message technology. To learn more go here:

http://beta.abc3340.com/external.hrb?p=skywatchers&w=1

JOIN THE PARTY: For the latest weather news, check out our sister site:

http://www.weatherparty.com/

There is always something fun to read over there, and remember you can register and submit links and vote on them. That determines what is "published" on the front page. Very cool stuff.

I am speaking at a luncheon at the Alabama Baptist Children's Homes and Family Ministries today... I am a trustee there and love being involved with the ministry. Many families in Alabama are in crisis and the need is great. If you want to learn more, go here:

http://www.abchome.org/

The afternoon map discussion video will be posted by 3:30 this afternoon. Enjoy the day!

Rain was not nearly as widespread across Alabama late tonight. There was rain over the Extreme Southeast. There was another band of showers across Central Alabama extending from Demopolis, Greensboro and Marion...northeastward across Chilton, Talladega, Calhoun, Cleburne and Cherokee County in NE Alabama.

Very little lightning return.

Heaviest showers were over North Perry and East Bibb County over toward the Sylacauga area.

The showers and a few storms in the new cluster over NE Mississippi weakened considerably.

I believe that today's rain was the most extensive in months--especially the big area that received such healthy amounts. A lot of people got over two inches and some over three. These three amounts were some of the highest:

3.30 inches at Winfield near the Marion-Fayette County line
3.15 at the Shelby County Airport
3.05 in Childersburg

This will probably be our last update tonight unless something unexpected happens.

Since none of the tropical action now underway threatens the USA, check this link for worlds of information:

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