I feel like Bill Murray this evening because I'm posting to the Blog from a far away location - well, not actually too far away - just Destin, FL. And what a lovely day it has been. After posting the web video map discussion, my wife and I finished loading the car and headed down the road.

We took a route from Helena to Montgomery where we picked up US 331 for a leisurely drive through southern Alabama. The rolling hills and pasture land were beautiful along with a bright blue sky with only a few patches of very thin, wispy cirrus clouds. If you've never taken that route, it is a combination of four-lane and two-lane roads with a good deal of construction where it will soon be a four-lane highway. But there was not much traffic once we left Montgomery. Every time I come south on this route, I'm amazed at how quickly you leave the congestion of the city once you make that turn onto US 331 from the southern by-pass just a couple of miles east of I-65.

Once we reached the beach area and US 98, traffic returned - not terribly but enough to be noticed. We found our rental company and the condo which is just across Old 98 from the beach. In fact, we have a clear view of the beach from our condo. My wife really loves the beach, but the dog, on the other hand, is not too sure about it.

Weather at the beach this afternoon was gorgeous. Not sure what the high was, but one of the first tasks was to take a short walk on the sand and watch the Gulf. There is still a lot of evidence of damage from the hurricanes of the last couple of years. One of the biggest signs is how much sand has been removed. It appeared to us that a beach reclamation project was underway just east of where we are. We could see a bulldozer in the distance pushing sand toward the Gulf. A large ship was anchored just offshore of the point where the bulldozer was working, so we figured the sand was being pumped from there to the beach area to widen the beach. It's obvious when you walk along the beach and look at some of the structures that cement foundations are a good two to three feet above the sand level.

Walking the dog just a few minutes ago, there is still a stiff breeze out of the southwest which actually put a bit of a chill in the air despite the temperature being 71 degrees. The breeze kicks up the sand and the sea spray, so I'm glad I did not have time to wash the car before the trip - it will surely need it after the trip.

So what are we going to do down here? As little as possible and just enjoy the sand and surf and nap and read and check the Blog and nap and read and walk on the beach and eat seafood and read and nap. Gads, I'm exhausted thinking about all I have to do!!

Happy Easter to everyone.

ON THIS DATE IN 1956:

Around 3 p.m., an F4 tornado touched down just west of Wylam in western Jefferson County. The murderous tornado tore to the northeast, passing along the western and northern fringes of the City of Birmingham. The tornado plowed through McDonald’s Chapel and the Stacey Hollow area. One hundred homes were destroyed in these two communities.

The twister continued through West Ensley and Sandusky, destroying another fifty homes.

Homes were destroyed in the New Georgia community near Lewisburg. The tornado passed just north of Tarrant City and near Ketona, finally lifting near Chalkville.

The twister killed twenty five along its twenty mile path. Most of the deaths occurred in the Stacey Hollow and McDonalds Chapel communities.

A total of four hundred homes and buildings were destroyed.

The Saturday video map discussion is on the server at:

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

Very little precipitation occurring across the United States on this Saturday morning. Temperatures across Central Alabama ranged from the mid 50s to the mid 60s, so another beautiful spring day for us to enjoy. And it looks like we'll continue to enjoy that great weather into next week as the main storm track continues well north of Alabama.

With a surface low passing north of the state on Easter Sunday, we'll see breezy conditions as the pressure gradient tightens up. But the gradient relaxes on Monday as the low moves out into the Atlantic Ocean.

A series of disturbances move across the country during the middle and latter part of the week, but these are generally too far north to have any major impact on our weather other than some passing clouds. Toward the end of the week, moisture increases with scattered showers possible. And by the weekend, the GFS model this morning develops a upper ridge to our west bringing a northwesterly flow to Alabama and the Southeast. This should modify our warm days and drop temperatures a bit - at least back toward normal instead of the 10+ degrees above normal that we've experienced over the last couple of days.

Long range GFS projections keep the main storm track north, but it is just mid April so I would not expect that pattern to continue indefinitely. We are still in our primary severe weather season, so the storm track could adjust.

The next web video map discussion will come on Monday morning around 7 am when James Spann returns.

I hope you and your families have a wonderful Easter weekend.

-Brian-