On this date in 1998: After starting out with a morning low of 81F, the mercury at Death Valley/Furnace Creek, California reached 127F. This is only one degree lower than its record high of 128F, which was set in 1913.

(Death Valley/Greenland Ranch had five maximums ranging from 129F to 134F in July, 1913, but these extremely high observations are not supported by the maximums at surrounding stations during the same period.)

Trustworthy readings of 128F were attained in Death Valley in July, 1972, and in June, 1994. In June, 1994, a park ranger measured 131F at Badwater in Death Valley with a sling psychrometer. Badwater is typically a few degrees hotter than Furnace Creek on summer afternoons.

Other memorable readings from this very hot day: 126 at Bullhead City AZ (just two degrees short of the all-time Arizona record of 128F). Las Vegas, NV reached 116F, just one degree shy of its all-time maximum of 117F. The record temps were the result of an unusually strong upper-level high pressure system that was sprawling over the Southwest.

The Friday afternoon map discussion video update is on the server:

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

Glad the weekend is here; I can't recall the the last time I had a day off! But, I love the job, no complaining here. Want to see a hard job done with no down time and very few thanks? Watch our soldiers serving this country in the middle east. THAT is the hard job.

EMILY: Lets discuss Emily first. I have discovered we have lots of readers in Texas and they are interested in our true opinion on the destination of the storm. Also, one of our affiliate radio stations is in McAllen; needless to say they have a vested interest.

One of our best forecasters in the shop (I won't say which one; we promised no names) says Emily will make landfall 50 miles NORTHEAST of Corpus Christi. The models are moving Emily right at Brownsville, and most of the models do as well. There is one HUGE outlier; the Florida State MM5 (see the video), which takes Emily to the Texas/Louisiana border.

I think everyone from Freeport south to Corpus Christi and Brownsville will have to be on their toes; I think landfall will be closer to Brownsville since the models have been too far north on this thing all along.

FRANKLIN? Our other system in the Atlantic remains rather disorganized. I still think it has a decent chance to grow into a tropical depression; maybe even tropical storm Franklin, over the weekend. The models now want to recurve this; one model even wants to loop it in the middle of the Atlantic. Still some outside chance this thing survives and threatens the Atlantic coast of the U.S... but just an outside chance at this point.

OUR WEEKEND: The tropical air remains, but heights begin to rise, so I still think showers and thunderstorms will thin out a bit by Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. In the short term, looks like showers and storms will remain rather numerous through tomorrow. I see Barbour county down in southeast Alabama is under a flash flood warning now, and heavy rain is falling in scattered pockets across the state as I type this message.

NEXT WEEK: Brian Peters will be doing the morning map discussion video and blog updates; I will be filling in for the Johnson and Johnson morning show on WZZK from 6 until 9 am. I will be doing the afternoon map discussion videos and blog posts as always....

Have a great weekend... I plan on getting a good nap and having a little fun!

Scattered showers and some thunderstorms now in progress over much of the state exdcept from Cullman north.

Most of the heavier shopwers down over the south half of the state.

Some are producing heavy rain mostly well south of Birmingham. We will have another afternoon/evening of heavy downpours in some areas.

Weogufka, in Coosa County, received a quick 0.55 mid to late morning.

NOTE: Please also scan down to see additional pictures from Moody and Trussville + the usual morning discussion from James Spann.

Upper air soundings this morning show that a very deep layer of moisture-laden air is still blanketing Alabama. Translation: Not good news for those hoping to dry out.

At mid-morning, showers and thunderstorms were already under way in these areas.

.....West and north of Montgomery mainly across Autauga, Elmore and North Lowndes. Locally heavy rain.

.....Further south in Monroe and Conecuh County of SW Alabama. Raining heavily in parts of those counties also.

.....Over Extreme North Mississippi, scattered storms dumping heavy rain. Some of these are edging closer to the NW Corner of Alabama.

.....Most of the north half of Alabama shower-free at 9:30 but that will change.

Amazing difference in rainfall yesterday:

5.83 inches in South Trussville (from Bill Murray)
4.17 SE of Trussville (2.99 in one hour)
2.80 in NE Trussville
1.57 in Gardendale
1.83 in Center Point
2.88 in Huffman
3.28 in Jasper
0.37 in Pelham
1.30 in Alabaster
0.54 in Helena (Brian Peters)
0.01 at Birmingham Airport (hardly enough to wet the pavement)
less than 1/3 inch at NBC-13 on Red Mountain (estimated)
about 1/4 inch at CBS-42 further south on Red Mountaon
0.14 at ABC 33/40 in Riverchase
0.00 (that spells none) in Greystone Cove where James abides

Here is a link to some additional flood pictures mainly along highway 79 north of Tarrant. Thanks to Chuck Biddinger. Just click on any frame to see it full-size.

http://www.servicewithasmile.com/photos/flood/

The Friday morning map discussion video is on the server:

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

Models shift north on Emily... look out south Texas. More on that later...

Around here the pure tropical air remains... will be interesting to see the PW values (precipitatible water) on the early morning soundings. We will continue to mention scattered to numerous showers and storms today. Of course, like yesterday, it won't rain everywhere. Not a drop at my house in northern Shelby county yesterday, while Bill Murray in Trussville had almost six inches and serious flooding issues.

We still expect the showers to thin out greatly by Sunday and Monday as heights rise and temperatures aloft warm up. We will NOT remove the chance of afternoon showers and storms, they just should be more widely spaced, and mostly during the afternoon and evening.

Toward the end of next week showers and storms should increase again in response to an approaching surface boundary from the north.

EMILY: Wow... models continue to shift northward and it now looks like a landfall Wednesday of next week somewhere on the south Texas coast. And, if Emily misses the Yucatan peninsula this thing won't weaken, and could be a huge storm at the time of landfall. The waters in the western Gulf have not been touched by any tropical system this season, and SSTs are in the 30 degree range (C). This is beginning to look very ominous for our friends from Corpus Christi south. Hurricane Allen comes to mind when you look at this; Allen was a whopper of a storm that moved into that region in 1980. Still no direct impact on the central Gulf coast.

EASTERN ATLANTIC: Watching three waves; the eastern most wave still has the potential to become tropical storm Franklin over the weekend. We now have three tropical models that recurve the system into the open water, while two keep it moving toward the Atlantic coast of the U.S. HMMM.

YESTERDAY: Scroll down to see some images from viewers from the flooding in the northeast part of the Birmingham metro area. How about that tornado warning for Walker county... don't see too many of those in July in Alabama. There was indeed a very nice velocity couplet for a few minutes, but about the time the warning was issued it went away. Looked like a nice cell merger north of Jasper which prompted the flare up. I understand a number of trees were blown down in that general area.

Will be in the office and the afternoon discussion and video will be posted by 3:30. Will try to have some specific advice for those readers in south Texas; one of our affiliate radio stations is in McAllen and I am afraid we are about to go on hurricane duty for them.