It has often been said that lightning is the “underrated killer”, and for good reason. Tornadoes, hurricanes, and tsunamis get the “big” press because they are very dramatic and can often produce incredible loss of life and property damage. Lightning deaths usually occur one at a time, and rarely attract major headlines.

One person died yesterday from a lightning strike in Santa Rosa County, Florida at Navarre Beach, between Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola. The 64 year old man was riding out a thunderstorm on the beach when he was killed. He was with an 11 year old boy, who was not seriously injured. Unfortunately, that is probably not the last time we will hear about death by lightning since most fatalities happen in the summer months when storms are more active.

Here are some commom misconceptions on the subject from the Lightning Safety Institute: LIGHTNING NEVER STRIKES TWICE (it hits the Empire State Building about 25 times a year.) RUBBER TIRES WILL INSULATE ME FROM LIGHTNING (it has traveled miles through space…a few inches of rubber mean nothing at all.) LIGHTNING CAN BE PREVENTED (unconfirmed/sheer advertising.) FIRST STRIKES FROM LIGHTNING CAN BE PREDICTED (unconfirmed/sheer advertising.) NEW HIGH-TECH TYPES OF LIGHTNING RODS CAN CONTROL LIGHTNING (unconfirmed/sheer advertising.)

So how to achieve lightning safety? It is a personal decision. Your decision. At the first sign of lightning or thunder, seek shelter. Good shelters are substantial buildings or fully enclosed metal vehicles. We suggest you remain in shelter for 30 minutes after the last observed thunder or lightning. "If you can hear it, clear it. If you can see it, flee it."

I am in the process of upgrading our blog scripts... you might see a few strange looks here, but all should be back to normal late tonight!

The Thursday afternoon map discussion video is on the server:

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

This is not your standard weather pattern for June. Instead of maritime tropical air; we have dry continental air over the deep south, and the upper air pattern suggests the flow of moist Gulf of Mexico air will remain shut down well into next week. Dewpoints are low, and nights will stay pleasantly cool for the next several days. You can see J.B.'s post on lows this morning (some spots dipped into the upper 50s), and I expect more of the same early tomorrow. Afternoon highs will pull back into the 80s, and factor in those low humidity values and we will look for unusually comfortable conditions for this time of the year all the way through the weekend. I am sure the City Stages planners are very happy.

NEXT WEEK: The high amplitude pattern continues into early next week, with the big upper trough over the eastern U.S. For now we see no significant chance of rain for at least the first half of the week, and possibly longer. The GFS tries to show a disturbed area of weather over the western Gulf of Mexico by the middle of next week, which drifts toward Texas and Louisiana.

TROPICS: We don't expect any serious action over the next few days; the system over the Bay of Campeche is mostly over land now, and the upper low isn't changing much northeast of Cuba.

Since we will not have many mornings like this for the summer, we list (and celebrate) a selection of this morning's lows:

57 at DeSoto State Park
58 at Valley Head and Belle Mina
59 at Black Creek, Fort Payne Airport, Hamilton, Heflin, Gaylesville
60 at Cottondale and Russell Cave National Monument
61 in Pinson, Gadsden, Cullman and Crossville
62 in Leeds, Florence, Jasper, Wedowee, Wadley and Russellville
63 in Anniston, Cherokee (Cherokee is in Colbert County, not Cherokee County
64 in Decatur, Athens, Ashville, Horseshoe Bend, Birmingham Airport
65 in Huntsville and Tuscaloosa
66 in Talladega

I guess being #30 is better than being #1 in this case! Old Spice's Top 100 Sweatiest Cities came out on Wednesday, and Birmingham is #30. How did they come up with this? They looked at the average summer high temperature for various cities and calculated how much an average adult would sweat while walking for one hour.

Want to know some other gross things that Old Spice's experts found out?

*In Phoenix, the #1 city, an adult should produce .76 liters of sweat while walking for 1 hour. They say, and I quote, "that's more than two 12-ounce glasses of lemonade!"

*Women sweat more in the underarm while men sweat more on the chest, forehead, and back.

*More than 2% of the people Old Spice surveyed said they never use deoderant or an anti-perspirant.

Here are the Top 100 Cities:

1. Phoenix, AZ
2. Las Vegas, NV
3. Tucson, AZ
4. Miami, FL
5. Corpus Christi, TX
6. West Palm Beach, FL
7. Houston, TX
8. Tampa, FL
9. Orlando, FL
10. Fort Myers, FL
11. San Antonio, TX
12. Honolulu. HI
13. Dallas, TX
14. Montgomery, AL
15. New Orleans, LA
16. Mobile, AL
17. Baton Rouge, LA
18. Waco, TX
19. Jacksonville, FL
20. El Paso, TX
21. Austin, TX
22. Charleston, WV
23. Fresno, CA
24. Savannah, GA
25. Shreveport, LA
26. Columbia, SC
27. Memphis, TN
28. Jackson, MS
29. Little Rock, AR
30. Birmingham, AL
31. Atlanta, GA
32. Tulsa, OK
33. Oklahoma City, OK
34. Raleigh, NC
35. Norfolk, VA
36. Chattanooga, TN
37. Richmond, VA
38. Greenville, SC
39. Louisville, KY
40. Washington, DC
41. Greensboro, NC
42. Albuquerque, NM
43. Charlotte, NC
44. Nashville, TN
45. Huntsville, AL
46. Virginia Beach, VA
47. Wichita, KS
48. St. Louis, MO
49. Sacramento, CA
50. Knoxville, TN
51. Salt Lake City, UT
52. Philadelphia, PA
53. Roanoke, VA
54. Evansville, IN
55. Baltimore, MD
56. Omaha, NE
57. Springfield, MO
58. Kansas City, MO
59. New York, NY
60. Lexington, KY
61. Cincinnati, OH
62. Los Angeles, CA
63. Columbus, OH
64. Asheville, NC
65. Indianapolis, IN
66. Moline, IL
67. Sioux Falls, SD
68. Spokane, WA
69. San Diego, CA
70. Toledo, OH
71. Hartford, CT
72. Dayton, OH
73. Des Moines, IA
74. Boston, MA
75. Providence, RI
76. Portland, OR
77. Pittsburgh, PA
78. Detroit, MI
79. Springfield, IL
80. Albany, NY
81. Cleveland, OH
82. Fort Wayne, IN
83. Chicago, IL
84. Minneapolis, MN
85. Grand Rapids, MI
86. Denver, CO
87. Syracuse, NY
88. South Bend, IN
89. Madison, WI
90. Flint, MI
91. Buffalo, NY
92. Burlington, VT
93. Youngstown, OH
94. Milwaukee, WI
95. Seattle, WA
96. Rochester, NY
97. Portland, ME
98. Green Bay, WI
99. Colorado Springs, CO
100. San Francisco, CA

The Thursday morning web video is on the server:

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

Right as we finally catch up on rainfall for the year (thanks to Arlene) last weekend, our rainfall deficit is back and will grow over the next five to seven days as a very dry pattern sets up.

The NAM did its best yesterday to suggest a convective system would scoot through Alabama tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow night, but now it agrees with the GFS and is dry as a bone through the weekend. The storms that form today around Tulsa and Fort Smith should slide through Louisiana and western Mississippi, missing Alabama completely.

The air is so dry we can pretty much safely rule out any afternoon showers and storms for the next four days, which is very unusual for June. Afternoons will stay pretty warm, but the humidity will be low. And, nights will be cooler. Looks like we will be down in the low 60s this weekend, with upper 50s possible in the cooler communities.

NEXT WEEK: The GFS has backed off on the idea of a westward drifting upper low across the deep south, and keeps the air very dry with a general trough holding over the eastern U.S. So, at the moment the first half of the week looks very dry.

TROPICS: An upper low is spinning over parts of the northern Caribbean and the southwest Atlantic, but that is not a good setup for tropical storm formation. And, another disturbance is over the Mexican coast at the Bay of Campeche, but the proximity to land should keep it under control. Everything else looks quiet for now.

LONG RANGE: Nothing to suggest any really extreme weather conditions for the end of June; the upper air pattern will relax and the weather here looks warm and muggy with afternoon storms returning....

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