Unfortunately, as I said in my last post, the whole steak ordeal was one of the more exciting things that happened on the storm chase. Even so, we all still had a good time and we did get to see a little weather over those two weeks. But first we had to position ourselves . . .

Canyon, Texas, was where we stayed for the steak night and one additional night. Canyon is a town that has its name for a very practical reason: a huge canyon is within several miles of the town. That canyon is Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the U.S. behind the Grand Canyon. Palo Duro was a very scenic place, and we were able to actually drive down into the canyon. We even saw several wild turkeys while we were down in it, which I definitely wasn't expecting to see.

After Palo Duro, we headed further away from where we might have a chance of seeing any storms, as we ended up in Roswell, New Mexico. We took another sightseeing trip to Carlsbad Caverns, which is another great place to visit on a dry and calm storm chase. We stayed in Roswell for the night, we weren't abducted by aliens, and then we headed bach towards the Texas panhandle in an effort to position ourselves for some possible storms over the first weekend.

We stayed a night in Dumas, Texas, and then headed up to Salina, Kansas. Our hope was to finally be able to chase some storms in SE Kansas. The models and the SPC were both showing a better chance than we'd seen all week for a small outbreak of storms, so we wanted to take a shot at it, even though it still didn't look great. So, the next day we headed towards the quaint little town of Winfield, Kansas, to wait for the cap to break . . .

From ADEM:

AIR QUALITY ALERT: CODE ORANGE

For ozone

Forecasted for Thursday, June 15, 2006

JEFFERSON AND SHELBY COUNTIES

Suggested Action:

*Carpool or take the bus
*Combine errands into one trip
*Walk or ride a bike for short trips
*Limit idling-avoid drive thru’s
*Mow the lawn another day
*Don’t burn leaves or trash

Thought you might want to see some pictures of what I am up to every day this week at Hunter Street... an ocean of children and a ton of fun!

You can learn more about what we do here:

http://www.kidquestonline.org/

The Wednesday afternoon map discussion video is on the server, and available on iTunes:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

Posting a little early today; the 12Z is in the house and I have a break here at my "second" job working children's ministry at Hunter Street during Summer Quest. Thanks to our church techincal staff for the great wi-fi coverage on the campus!

I know I have been pushing the idea of relatively dry weather for the rest of June, and I think that is still generally the case. But, the GFS continues to trend a little wetter for the weekend and early next week. That is a good thing; we need some rain. Understand I am not talking about some kind of widespread, all-day rain, but scattered showers and storms seem more likely by Saturday and Sunday.

SHORT TERM: Lots of sunshine tomorrow and Friday with afternoon temperatures reaching the low 90s.

WEEKEND: A rather stong upper trough for early June continues to look better on model output, and should being some very welcome and beneficial rain to the I-35 corridor from Dallas/Fort Worth north to Oklahoma City and Wichita. Around here, low level moisture will increase with southerly winds, and the upper trough approaching from the west will mean a chance of scattered, mainly afternoon and evening showers and storms on Saturday and Sunday. The most numerous showers and storms should be over the western half of the state, closer to the upper trough. Looks high temperatures over the weekend will be near or a little above 90 degrees for most communities.

NEXT WEEK: With the lingering upper trough to the west and a weak surface front to the north, scattered showers and storms will remain possible Monday and Tuesday, but the ridge rebuilds by Wednesday and Thursday.

ALBERTO: NHC has issued the final advisory on Alberto since the system has lost tropical characteristics, but the weather will still be windy and wet around Baltimore and Washington, D.C. this afternoon as the system moves northeast. Interesting to note the NHC track takes the remmant storm all the way to Scotland early next week!

Don't forget a new WeatherBrains episode has been posted:

http://www.weatherbrains.com/

And, I am looking for volunteers to join our new Skywatcher program ESPECIALLY in these counties:

Pickens, Lamar, Sumter, Greene, Marengo, Hale, Bibb, Winston, Walker, Blount, Cherokee, Cleburne, Randolph, Clay, Coosa, Chilton, Perry, and Tallapoosa. It would also be nice to have some on with us in far Eastern Mississippi. Our new Skywatcher team communicates with us via an Instant Message conference in real time; this is a very exciting concept in getting YOU involved in our weather operation. See this post for more information:

http://www.jamesspann.com/bmachine/post/wxtalk/4738/

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

Mr. Alberto is rapidly losing his tropical bloodline.

He was demoted to a tropical depression during the night.

At mid-morning, the circulation center was near the South Carolina-North Carolina border. Moving NE. Still a chance of 2 to 4 inches of additional rain through this evening over Central and East North Carolina and SE Virginia.

A few selected rainfall amounts for the last 24 hours:

3.18 inches at Savannah
3.79 in Columbia
2.50 in Charleston

THREE SPOT REPORTS AT 9 AM EDT
Charleston...rain, wind SW 18, gusts 32
Hilton Head...cloudy, SW 17, gusts 29
Myrtle Beach...rain, south 22, gusts 30

STORM TOTAL RAINFALL AND PEAK GUSTS for GEORGIA/SOUTH CAROLINA
7.05 inches at Rincon (SE Georgia)
4.13 at Buffton (SE South Carolina)
51 mph at Grays Reef (SE Georgia)
51 mph at Edisto Beach (coastal South Carolina)

Episode number 20 of our weekly 30 minute podcast, WeatherBrains, is available now on the web, or on iTunes:

http://www.weatherbrains.com/

In this week's show:

-Tropical Storm Alberto: We talk about the storm and the job the news media did covering it;

-James Spann shares his growing concerns about many of the broadcast journalists covering hurricanes;

-An early prediction about Alberto that turned out to be extremely close: The computer model forecasters initially snickered at;

-What you don't hear in news coverage about global warming;

-What Baghdad, Iraq, and Birmingham, Alabama, had in common;

-Brian Peters shares observations about the new hurricane season, his Lake Martin, Alabama vacation and his alleged visits to Wesley's Boobie Trap...

The Wednesday morning map discussion video is on the server:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

What a nice break from the hot weather yesterday. Clouds were thick enough to keep temperatures down in the low 80s in many areas, and the fresh breeze on the back side of tropical storm Alberto also helped.

We get back to reality today as we expect upper 80s by afternoon. Low 90s are likely tomorrow and Friday as the summer heat returns. The air is very dry, and each day should feature lots of sunshine.

WEEKEND MOISTURE? The GFS continues to show a stronger upper trough to the west of Alabama over the weekend, along with improved low level moisture levels here. Sure looks like we need to bring in at least a chance of widely scattered afternoon showers or storms, especially for areas west of I-65. The better setup for rain will be over Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, where they really need it. Some decent showers and storms might even develop over Mississippi, and hopefully a few over this way. We will take any rain we can get.

NEXT WEEK: The GFS shows a surface front to the north of here early next week, but it never reaches us as the ridge holds. With ample low level moisture, we probably can mention widely scattered afternoon showers and storms Monday through Wednesday.

LONG RANGE: Still nothing out there to suggest any widespread, organized rain event during the latter half of June. Best we can hope for is to snag an afternoon shower or storm from time to time.

ALBERTO: Now a tropical depression, the system is over the coastal plain of North Carolina. It moves back into the Atlantic later today as it accelerates to the northeast.

TROPICS: The wave train seems active; one wave is in the eastern Caribbean, another in the central Atlantic, and another one that has just come off the coast of Africa. No sign of any development for now.

I will have the next map discussion video posted by 3:30!