I wanted to take this space today and mention that the largest gathering of amateur radio operators in Alabama is this weekend in Huntsville. The annual Huntsville Hamfest will be held at the Von Braun Civic Center tomorrow and Sunday; the doors will open at 9:00 both days. I do my best to make this event every year, along with the BirmingHamfest which is held in May. These conventions feature dozens of amateur radio equipment vendors along with a huge flea market . There are many forums and meetings, and for ham radio operators hamfests are a great way of meeting some of the people you talk to on the air in person.

At the Hamfest Hoover’s Rebekah Dorff (call sign WG4Y) will receive the national “Young Ham of the Year” award. Rebekah, now 12, first earned her amateur radio license at the age of 8, and by the time she was 9 she upgraded to the highest level license, the extra class. To our knowledge she is the youngest extra class licensee in the state of Alabama.

I got into ham radio at the old age of 14, and I earned the extra class license when I was 17. The license structure for ham radio has changed a bit over the years, and now getting into the hobby is easier that ever. The most popular class of license does not require any knowledge of Morse Code, and amateur radio equipment is relatively inexpensive. Amateur radio operators are the backbone of the national SKYWARN network, and continue to provide emergency communications during a variety of disasters.

I guess a little of the “magic” of ham radio has faded with the Internet and easy global communications, but there is still some very special about having your own private short wave station. And, the new digital modes are absolutely amazing. If you want to learn more about the hobby, drop by the Huntsville Hamfest this weekend. Get details on the hamfest here:

http://www.hamfest.org/

Unless storms flare up again, this will probably be our final update for this evening. Before we fade into the sunset, these final notes:

Strongest remaining thunderstorms at 8:15 pm were:

* Over South Winston County south of Double Springs
* Along the Chilton-Autauga County line
* Along the Clarke-Washington-Choctaw County line in SW Alabama

NOTES FROM ABC 33/40 WEATHER WATCHERS
* Alston Keith reports 0.88 rainfall this afternoon at Inverness. This brings the August total to 6.02 inches with measurable rain on 12 of the first 18 days! See there, Nathan, your time will come. Alston also said that lightning was very intense around 5:15 pm.
* In Helena, temporarily a desert, Nathan Jones is threatening to sell his rain gage. Zero, zip rainfall again today, NONE!
* James Spann reports 0.91 this afternoon in Greystone Cove

OTHER RAINFALL AMOUNTS
0.72 in Ashland
0.87 in Haleyville
1.51 at Harris Dam (Randolph County)
0.87 at Jordan Dam

HIGH TEMPERATURES THIS AFTERNOON (THURSDAY)
94 in Birmingham
95 in Tuscaloosa, Cullman, Huntsville, Demopolis, Helena, Crumly Chapel
96 in Gardendale

Hope all of you saw a very impressive sunset

The Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Lawrence County expired at 7:15 pm

Overall, storms across Central Alabama are not as strong. A few of the main ones:

* Near the junction of Shelby, Bibb and Chilton County

* NE Autauga County

* Along the Chambers-Lee County line

* SW Alabama over South Choctaw and Washington County.

Movement variable but generally east and SE

It is a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Kawrence County in NW Alabama until 7:15 pm.

The storm was 6 miles south of the Speake Community moving east at 15 mph. It will affect mainly the east part of the Bankhead National Forest.

This is mostly south of the Moulton area.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
It is for North Tallapoosa County in East Alabama. The possible severe thunderstorm was near New Site or about 7 miles NE of Alexander City.

Moving east at 10 mph.

May also affect Goldville and Daviston

Some of the other stronger thunderstorms as of 5:45 pm:

* North Shelby County south of the Birmingham. It was mainly affecting Chelsea and Oak Mounatin State Park and areas east of I65

* Along the Tuscaloosa-Bibb County line

* East Lauderdale County east of Florence

*West Lawrence County west of Moulton

* North Clarke County in SW Alabama

Most of these storms are very noisy with much lightning and loud thunder and plenty of heavy rain.

Storms were moving almost due east earlier. Now they seem to be moving a bit south of due east...more toward the ESE

REPORTS WE HAVE RECEIVED
So far this afternoon, we have not received any specific reports of known damage.

Strong storms scattered all over. Here are the main ones:

* From South Talladega County east across Clay and Randolph. Pouring near Ashland, Lineville and Wedowee. And now:

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
For South Clay County until 5:30 pm. The storm was 10 miles NW of Millerville. It was moving very little. The warning includes Ashland.

* A small heavy thunderstorm over East Shelby, near Wilsonville

* From NE Greene County into SW Tuscaloosa County, including areas in and around Knoxville, Ralph and Fosters

* NW Alabama, in Colbert County, south of Tuscumbia

* SW Sumter County in West Alabama SW of Livingston

Most of these storms dumping very heavy rain and more lightning than you want to see.

Overall movement is toward the east. Some are moving very slowly or erratically

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
It is for Jackson County as far in the NE corner of Alabama as you can go.

Expires at 4:45

The storm was 6 miles SW of Skyline moving east. Should affect:

Skyline
Scottsboro
Hollywood

Here is how it looks at mid-afternoon...

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
It is for Dekalb County in Extreme NE Alabama until 4 pm. I believe this is the 4th afternoon in a row that Dekalb has had either a Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Flash Flood Warning. The severe thunderstormn was near Crossville moving east at 10...and Geraldine, Crossville and Collinsville may be affected.

Some of the other stronger storms were located:

* Along the Marshall-Dekalb County line
* Central Talladega between Talladega and Sylacauga
* East Madison County east of Huntsville
* South Sumter County near Livingston

Storms generally moving east.

Heavy rain also reported at Greystone Cove in North Shelby County.

The Thursday afternoon map discussion is on the server:

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

Running out of ways to describe this weather. Hot, humid, morning sun, scattered afternoon storms. The story remains the same through Saturday. Heights inch upward tomorrow and Saturday, which means hotter afternoons with storms becoming a little more widely scattered.

THE FRONT! GFS still advertises a front pushing all the way through Alabama by Sunday night. This will bring lower humidity and cooler nights early next week. Tuesday morning most places around here should go into the 60 to 65 degree range, with some upper 50s in the cooler valleys. Bring it on.

JOSE? Waiting on data from a hurricane hunter aircraft in the vicinity of the wave at 20N and 60W. Models take this system toward Key West by early next week. The big eastern U.S. upper trough, which will bring us the lower humidity and cooler nights, might be an issue for this system, that should become tropical storm Jose down the road. The trough might turn Jose northward before reaching Florida, toward the Carolinas. Or, the system might scoot under the trough and wind up in the Gulf of Mexico. Don't have a strong feeling one way or another at this early stage of the game.

Sorry about the wrong times on this blog earlier today... we are having a little trouble with the time on the RSS feed, and by trying to fix that issue I fouled up the time stamps on the regular posts and comments.

Always something exciting going on around here.

J.B. Elliott, the great Alabama weather legend, is on Storm Watch for the rest of the afternoon here on the blog...

This update was written at 2 pm, CDT

Thunderstorms were increasing rather rapidly this afternoon. While scattered ones were showing up in all sections of the state, the strongest ones were over the NE counties.

Especially through Western Calhoun County.

The storms were moving east. Downpours of rain, maybe enough to cause street and road flooding, way too much lightning and gusty winds will reach the Jacksonville-Anniston-Oxford areas soon.

Again this afternoon, don't be surprised to see a few Severe Thunderstorm or Flash Flood Warnings...