I noticed a big picture in yesterday’s Birmingham News of a young girl picking strawberries. Guess it is that time of the year again, so let me make a couple of suggestions if you want to have a little fun in the spring sunshine.

The girl in the newspaper photo was picking berries at Sunshine Farms, which is in Chilton county and is part of the route in “Spann’s Best Way to the Bama Beaches”, which I will publish in full here in a couple of weeks as we get closer to the end of the school year. To get to Sunshine Farms, take I-65 south out of Birmingham. Exit at the Alabama Highway 145 exit, at the famous “Peach Water Tower” where we have one of our weathernet stations installed. Turn right onto Highway 145, and when you are in downtown Clanton take Alabama Highway 22 west (in the direction of Maplesville). A few miles outside of Clanton (4.5 miles to be exact) , turn left onto Chilton County Road 37. After about seven miles or so, you will see Sunshine Farms “U-Pick” strawberry farm on the left. Stop by and for only seven dollars you can fill your bucket with some really great strawberries.

The strawberry season runs from April 5 through June 10. You might run on down to Jim’s Pit Barbeque in Billingsley while you are down that way… Jim’s is my favorite barbeque joint in Alabama. And, those are some pretty strong words since I love to hang out at barbeque joints!

There are actually a number of great “u-pick” strawberry places all around Alabama. Up in Blount county, you might try Kenneth Witt’s place on Highway 160 in Nectar. I got a few buckets of these strawberries last year when I spoke up there and they were wonderful. You can find a complete list of Alabama “u-pick” operations online here:

http://www.agi.state.al.us/PDFs/UPick.PDF

It is a great way to spring a sunny spring day in Alabama.

It's just gotta be spring. Got my sleeping hours mixed up and was awake this morning at 2:30 but asleep again at 6 for a one-hour power nap.

Took another one-hour power nap late this afternoon. But Little Miss Molly "woofed" and scratched me awake when it was almost dark rearing to go on another half-mile trek.

As we were going up the walking track directly behind our house, I almost got jerked off my feet. I got a glimpse of a little white "ball" zooming across in front of us. Molly launched like a rocket. She had jumped one of the Community Rabbits (CR). It appeared to be a baby rabbit but could not tell for sure. It is the first rabbit we have seen in well over a year.

Tis a sure sign of spring. The first rabbit plus a variety of gnats, spiders, worms, ants and other "varmints" (as Snuffy Smith would call them)

Don't know how many "varmints" we will have to deal with this year but I suspect a lot because of the lack of real cold weather this winter. (See additional story below)

But all the varmints, including spiders are an important part of nature's ecosystem.

As of Sunday, I was 26,645 days old. To make me sound older, I reached an age of 639,480 hours. Howsomever, my pal, Little Miss Molly has reversed my aging process and I predict a year from now that I will be only 26,000 days old and will start growing hair again!

Life goes on...sometimes in reverse.

We have just gone through another winter without any devastating cold weather. How is this going to affect our VIP?

In this case, VIP stands for Varmint and Insect Population.

I have a feeling that we will be overrun by all those little critters, including mosquitoes, spiders, gnats, fire ants, worms--you name it. It takes some real cold temperatures to kill back all the bugs. Consider these facts:

.....The temperature only dropped under 20 degrees three times this winter, including the low for the season of 17 in December. The lowest in January was 18.

.....I feel like we would need some temperatures under 10 degrees at least a few nights to really be effective. We just did not have it.

.....In fact, the temperature only dropped to freezing or lower 34 times all winter. Only 19 times did it drop to 25 or lower.

.....Nighttime low temperatures averaged 7.7 degrees above normal in November, 5.2 degrees above normal in January and February and 2.2 degrees above normal so far in April. Only December and March nighttimes averaged slightly below normal.

The coldest night in each month:
33 in November
17 in December
18 in January
25 in February
24 in March
37 so far in April

Sounds like a greeen light for all the varmints...

The Monday afternoon web video is on the server:

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

Our forecast will continue to highlight dry and warm weather through mid-week. There will be a few periods of high clouds, but nothing to seriously block the sun. The big message is that an upper air trough will set up along the eastern seaboard this weekend, which will mean cooler than normal temperatures for Alabama beginning Saturday, lasting well into next week.

NEXT RAIN: Showers seem likely by Thursday night and Friday with the first cold front passing through. No severe weather, no heavy rain. Maybe a little thunder and lightning.

THE WEEKEND: I still think the GFS MOS numbers are too high for the weekend. For now I expect highs in the 60s and low in the 40s this weekend with a cool northerly breeze. The 12Z run of the GFS takes the moisture out of here Friday night, so the weekend looks dry at this point.

NEXT WEEK: Another front will pass through on Tuesday (April 26) with another chance of showers, and even colder air for the next next few days (April 27-29). I would not be totally shocked if some of the colder spots had a little light frost somewhere in there, but no freeze. We will be more specific with this late season cool snap this weekend.

Thanks to my pals in the first grade down at Centreville Elementary this morning... they were great!

The Monday morning web video is on the server:

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

The beautiful spring weather will continue for the next three days, with mostly sunny warm days and clear pleasant nights. We do see some changes through the rest of April:

LATE THIS WEEK: A "back door" cold front will slip in here on Friday with a chance of a few showers. No severe wether, no heavy rain, but a few raindrops will be possible as the front eases in here.

THE WEEKEND: A shower is possible on Saturday, especially during the morning, but we should be dry Saturday night and Sunday. Temperatures should be cooler, and I think they will be cooler than the model output statistics suggests (MOS). Highs could drop into the 60s on Saturday and Sunday.

NEXT WEEK: Another cold front passes through around Tuesday (April 26)... with a chance of showers. Then, the GFS suggests a sharp change to cooler weather during the middle of the week (April 27-29). At the point the weather looks dry and pleasant for the following weekend, which is race weekend at the Talladega Superspeedway.

This pattern suggests no severe weather and no flooding threats for Alabama during the rest of April. We can all be thankful for that!

Headed down to Bibb county today to speak to the kids at Centreville Elementary school!

On this date in 1970...It had been a devastating night for tornadoes in the Texas Panhandle. At least four F3 or F4 twisters slashed at the area between Amarillo and Lubbock. At the U.S. Weather Bureau office in Lubbock, it had been a busy night with countless tornado warnings issued. Around midnight, the all clear was sounded.

But more storms formed during the predawn hours after people had gone to bed. During the predawn hours, another family of tornadoes swarmed across the Panhandle. The Sherwood Shores resort on the Greenbelt Reservoir near Clarendon, TX was directly in the path of the deadly twister. The resort was home to about 1,000 mobile homes. Around 150 people were at home in the park that night as the tornado cut a path through the park, destroying 172 of the trailers. Thirteen people died in Sherwood Shores as the twister struck without warning.
On this date in 1884...More than two dozen tornadoes touched down from Arkansas and Kansas to Michigan and Wisconsin. A massive F4 tornado devastated the town of Marshfield, MO, killing 99 people. Only fifteen buildings were left standing in the town of 1,100. The town of Barnettsville, MO was abandoned after a mile wide F4 destroyed the hamlet. Debris on the tracks of the Missouri Pacific Railroad from this tornado caused a passenger train to derail. Over 100 total fatalities in the outbreak.