On Friday, August 15, 1969, Camille was a hurricane, south of Cuba. The rapidly intensifying storm was moving northwest toward the western tip of the island nation and the Southeast Gulf of Mexico. As it approached the western tip of Cuba on the afternoon of the 15th, the central pressure had already fallen to 964 millibars and the maximum sustained winds had risen to 115 mph. As the young storm passed over Cuba, the eye was under the surveillance of the Havana radar, and the Cuban Weather Service actually provided reports to the National Hurricane Center.

On Saturday morning the 16th, nervous resident along the Gulf Coast kept a watchful eye on the hurricane, billed as potentially the strongest on the Gulf Coast since 1915. Camille would surpass her advance billing. Air Force Reconnaissance crews were unable to penetrate the eye of the still intensifying storm early on the 16th as the tightly wound eye shrunk to eight nautical miles in diameter. Hurricane Warnings were issued from Fort Walton to St. Marks, Florida. Then ominously, Camille stalled in the Central Gulf. Into the nighttime hours of Saturday, Camille set stationary, feeding on the warm waters. When the Air Force C-130 penetrated the eye on Saturday afternoon, forecasters gasped at the pressure reading—908 mb, the lowest observed to that time by recon. Winds on the afternoon advisories were increased to an impressive 160 mph.

During the night, the a recon flight measured the central pressure at 905 mb, and it became clear that the dangerous storm was on the move again, but more north northwestward than the northeast path predicted. Official NHC forecasts consistently had to be shifted westward throughout the weekend. By Sunday morning, warnings were shifted westward to Mobile and then as far west as New Orleans just two hours later. Preparations along the Gulf Coast were frantic as even more frightening reports came in from the Air Force plane. Less than 100 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River, the crew reported that winds had increased to over 200 mph. This allowed the Weather Bureau to warn that Camille would deliver catastrophic winds and tides to the coastline.

The center of Hurricane Camille crossed the coast in the vicinity of Clermont Harbor, Waveland and Bay St. Louis around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 17th. No wind equipment survived the eyewall, but from the splintering observed along the coast winds were estimated to have been at least 200 mph. The observed storm tide of 24.6 at Pass Christian, Mississippi is believed to be the highest ever observed in a U.S. landfalling hurricane.

Strongest thunderstorms at 7:15 were in two areas:

1. Southern Elmore County. These should pass mostly east of Montgomery.
2. Far SE Alabama

Moving south

Unless something redevelops this will probably be our last update

But you never know

NWS, Birmingham has posted a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for SE Coosa County until 6:45. The storm was centered about 9 miles SE of Rockford and moving slowly south at only 5 mph.

Strongest thunderstorms in Alabama at 6:30 pm were located:

1. Southeast Chilton County
2. South Coosa County
3. North Elmore County
4. NE Autgauga County
5. Far SE Alabama over Barbour and Henry County

Very little thunderstorm activity over the north half of the state.

1. Strong thunderstorms over South and SW Talladega County and NW tip of Coosa County.
2. A few over Calhoun County in East Alabama
3. Strongest storms of all, and the heaviest rain from south of Auburn southward across Russell and Barbour County.

Everything moving generally southward but in no hurry.

Few, if any storms from Birmingham northward. But others could form,

The Hoover Fire Department was dispatched just before 4 pm to a female hit by lightning near Caldwell Mill Road in North Shelby County.

Thunderstorms are not as numerous...or as strong...as yesterday at this time but dangerous lightning is out there in almost every thunderstorm.

Just before 4:30 pm...some of the thunderstorms were located:

1. North Cullman County
2. Near Jacksonville in Calhoun County
3. Across West and South Shelby County
4. Also Extreme South Jefferson County near the Shelby line
5. South of Montgomery
6. Lee County, east and SE of Auburn-Opelika area
7. At 4:55 pm, storms have intensified over South Talladega County. Continuous lightning reported at Childersburg.

Here are some 4 pm temperatures from around the state...

81 in Cullman, thunderstorms nearby
83 at DeSoto State Park
89 at Birmingham Airport....thunder heard
91 in Fort Payne, Gadsden, Alexander City, Guntersville
93 in Anniston and Hackleburg
94 in Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, Parrish, Hamilton
95 in Helena (See Note below)
96 in Muscle Shoals, Cherokee and Decatur
92 in Jasper
99 in Florence and Meridianville

Not all of these reports are official. Some are from private stations and stations belonging to the U. S. Forest Service.

At Helena, Nathan Jones, ABC 3340 Weather Watcher reported 95 degrees at 3:20 pm. After that, it dropped 7 degrees in 15 minutes by 3:50 pm because of a thunderstorm near Oak Mountain.

Only a few at mid-afternoon but they are growing.
Not nearly as many as at this same time Saturday.

At 3 pm today, storms were mainly in these areas:

1. Cullman County
2. Cherokee County
3. Montgomery area
4. South Autauga and Lowdnes County

Strangely enough, all of them moving south except Cullman County. There, they seemed to be stopped as if there are refueling.

None of the storms are very strong yet but that may change. All have lightning which is automatically dangerous.

It is hotter this afternoon than yesterday. At 3 pm, it was:

91 in Cullman
92 in Birmingham
93 in Tuscaloosa
94 in Huntsville
96 in Muscle Shoals

DATES TO REMEMBER
1. Our normal high temperature drops from 91 to 90 Tuesday--the beginning of a downward trend

2. October will be here in 48 days

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Quite a day yesterday with scattered storms with some intense rainfall and strong wind. Be sure to check out the pictures James posted on the Blog earlier this morning. That shot of the tree I found very interesting. It is the second time I've seen a tree literally exploded when struck by lightning. I saw one several years ago just south of Maplesville along Highway 22. Parts of the tree were blown 250 feet away from the trees location.

The tropics remain somewhat active. Irene does not appear likely to achieve hurricane strength and should become extratropical as it moves over cooler waters of the North Atlantic in three to four days. TD10 is not doing very well in a similar fashion to Irene's early days. And that disturbance on the African continent that looked quite impressive yesterday morning has become much less impressive as it emerges into the Atlantic. But it is good to be watchful of both of these as we approach the peak time period of hurricane season.

Maybe this hurricane season will be like the tornado seasons we've seen in Alabama over the last several years. Even though we got off to a fast and furious start, perhaps the normal peak of the season will be a dud! We can hope for it so that lives and property will be spared.

Just not much change in our weather pattern for the next week or so. Temperatures may get into the lower and mid 90s during the first of the upcoming week as the mositure content of the atmosphere drops a bit and the Bermuda high exerts a stronger influence on the Southeast US. The GFS continues to advertise some changes in the longer term that could be interesting beginning in about a week. Weak 500 millibar low on Monday a week could translate into an easterly wave that would bring clouds and showers to southern and coastal sections. Further into the future is the promise of a good looking trough over the eastern US which could bring dryer and slightly cooler air to us. But all of these are long term, so we'll just have to wait to see how it all plays out.

Thanks for watching and reading. Hope the upcoming week is a good one for everyone.

-Brian-

Here are two images of tree damage from yesterday's afternoon storms: The first image below is a tree that literally "exploded" after being hit by lightning in the southeast side of Mountain Brook:



And, the image below was taken along Shelby County Road 26 between Alabaster and Montevallo, which was blocked for a while in both directions due to downed trees. The driver was able to get out of the car.



All of the storms yesterday packed quite a punch!

This is a reminder we have to take the threat of lightning and wet microbursts seriously during summer storms. All of the storms on a summer afternoon feature some pretty wicked lightning, and some of them produce a small area of damaging straight line winds we call a wet microburst, which caused the wind damage in Shelby county.

The two tornado fatalities that occurred in Wyoming on Friday made me think about the 2005 U.S. Tornado Season. We have a very good chance to set the record for the least amount of tornado fatalities in the United States since 1950 (when modern reliable records began.) So far, we have only recorded seven. The record for fewest fatalities is fifteen back in 1986.

Fewest Tornado Fatalities in U.S. by Year since 1950
1. 15—1986
2. 21—1984
3. 25—1986
4. 27—1972
5. 28—1980
6. 30—1961
6. 30—1995
8. 31—1963
9. 32—1988
10. 33—1993

Let’s all work hard to establish that new record!