I had a rare opportunity to view severe weather coverage on Birmingham television from home. Sunday night, when severe thunderstorms developed over north-central Alabama, I was home with our 8 year old. With my wife out of town, I was pretty much in the baby-stting mode, watching everything unfold with my laptop and the home television while John Oldshue, Brian Peters, and J.B. Elliott staffed the weather office. I must admit it was great being able to see our live Pinpoint Doppler Radar on our new digital signal, WJSU-DT 9.2 from Bald Rock mountain just east of Leeds. This is also available on WCFT-DT 5.2 on our 2,000 foot tower in Tuscaloosa county. The radar is on those channels 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

When southern Pickens county and northern Sumter counties in west Alabama went under a tornado warning at 7:14 p.m., we went into “wall to wall” coverage. This is a promise we made 9 years ago when ABC 33/40 signed on the air; anytime any county in the Birmingham market is under a tornado warning, we provide long form coverage.

Sure, this will generate a few nasty e-mail messages and phone calls, but a overwhelming majority of our viewers have responded positively. In fact, overnight ratings from Sunday night show the audience increased from a 12.7 at 7:00 during regular programming to a 14.5 rating at 8:00 during weather coverage. And, ABC 33/40 was first place in the market at that time by far. We thank you for your trust.

I will be the first to say I understand frustrations when you are trying to watch a program and it is interrupted by weather coverage, but soon in the new digital TV era will be able to put the regular program on one of our multicast channels and you won’t miss anything if you choose not to watch tornado coverage. We will probably go to this plan at some point during the middle of this year. Bring on the digital TV era!

The Monday afternoon web video update is on the server:

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

A very busy week ahead... am going to pick my brackets this afternoon for the BIG DANCE. How about you? I will reveal my final four and championship pick here tomorrow, altough I am sure nobody cares. Weather people really don't need to dabble in sports.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

*I think MOS products are too cool for the next seven days. We sure learned our lesson this past weekend... I would not trust any of those numbers.

*The best chances of rain in the next seven days:

-Tomorrow afternoon through Wednesday morning
-During the day Thursday
-Friday night and Saturday morning
-Sunday night into Monday of next week

*In a fast zonal pattern like this, timing errors are likely in the longer ranges, so be watching for changes.

*No real sign of a classic severe weather setup in the next seven days, but you can't rule out the possibility at some point down the road in this pattern.

*The pattern won't change much for spring break week next week, one or two nice days, and then one or two days of rain. The weather will be very changeable here, and along the Gulf coast.

*Heaviest rain should be near the Gulf coast for the rest of the week, with amounts nearing 5 inches possible near Panama City and Destin between tonight and Saturday.

The Monday morning web video update is on the server:

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

A few final words about last night's severe weather coverage and I will move on...

When ABC 33/40 went on the air in 1996 the decision was made to provide continuous severe weather coverage when any county in our designated market area (DMA) goes under a tornado warning. With most homes now receiving over 500 TV stations, we figure people can find a movie or program they want to watch somewhere else rather easily. We were determined to raise the bar when it comes to severe weather coverage around here with the safety of our viewers coming first.

Sure, we knew this would generate a few nasty phone calls and e-mails, but I assure you the positive response of our long form tornado coverage is overwhelming. What I have noticed is how the hate mail has gotten profane and vulgar over the years. Really sad, and I guess it reflects where we are going as a society. Some of these people need to take a chill pill.

With the new digital TV era, you won't have this problem anymore since we will be able to show regular program on one of our digital multi-cast channels in the future when tornado coverage is on our main channel.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

Let me say up front we are in a very progressive pattern, and it will be hard to put together more than 36 to 48 hours of dry weather at least for the next week. But, this is March and pretty much what you expect this time of the year.

NEXT RAIN: Looks like we need to highlight rain and storms tomorrow night into Wednesday morning. Showers might begin tomorrow afternoon as a warm front moves northward from the Gulf coast. The heaviest rain with this feature would seem to to the south based on model output.

THURSDAY: Another wave brings a chance of rain or showers in here on Thursday. Don't think this will be especially heavy.

FRIDAY NIGHT/SATURDAY: Once again, we will have to highlight rain and thunderstorms with another impulse moving along in the fast upper flow. The latest data suggests the rain will be over by midday Saturday, with Sunday being rain-free as we begin spring break week in Alabama.

For the last part of March there are a number of waves and storms, but trying to time them out this far in advance is simply impossible.

We see no serious severe weather threat at this point over the next few days, but we will caution you that it doesn't take too much to get a round of severe storms going this time of the year, like last night. There was little upper air support for those storms last night... I can't imaging what would have happened if we DID have some good support.

Will try to post some updated damage reports on here a little later today... sounds like a tornado touched down in Pickens county based on reports we have received...

I had an enjoyable weekend at Walt Disney World this weekend. My son Chris is on a performance cheerleading squad, and his team was competing in a Championship at Walt Disney World. Having been to Disney a few times, there was no rush to have to do everything. We ate in the Moroccan restaurant in the EPCOT World Showcase on Friday night. I am always intrigued by the different countries in the Showcase. The food in the restaurants is very good actually, and the surroundings seem very realistic. In Morocco, they had a neat band that played authentic music along with a belly dancer. I think one of the neatest parts of WDW is the Boardwalk and Beach and Yacht Club area. When you stand in front of the Beach Club and look across the water, it is like you are looking at an East Coast beach resort from the 30s or 40s.

On Saturday, we went to the Spring Training game between the Braves and Detroit Tigers at Cracker Jack Stadium in the WDW Wide world of Sports complex. The stadium is large for a Spring Training venue, and since it relatively new, it might lack some of the charm of the older or smaller locations. But it more than makes up for it in design, friendliness of staff and immaculate cleanliness. The food was ok, but reasonably priced. We got to see the Braves' new ace, Tim Hudson pitch. In my book, the wild card for the Braves to win an unprecedented 14th straight division title is Raul Mondesi. He drove in a run against the Tigers. I predict he will have a great year. We dined in Le Cellier restaurant in Canada Saturday night. We had heard that the steaks were excellent, and they lived up to their billing. Again, the service was stellar, with a young lady from Ontario named Tara serving us.

On Sunday, we visited the African Lodge hotel, one of Disney's prettiest and newest resort hotels. We were too late for breakfast, so we went on to Animal Kingdom, where you feel like you have been transported to India or Africa. We ate in the Rainforest Cafe, then explored all of the trails in the Animal Kingdom. We had one thing to do at MGM. That was the Who Want s to be a Millionaire show. I nearly got into the hot seat, coming in 3rd out of the audience. I would have been playing for a Disney Cruise. Then had to ride the Test Track at EPCOT before a quick dinner at Les Chefs de France. Then Chris' team had their final competition. They came in second in the nation in their division!