I spent the morning Saturday watching all of the documentaries and specials that I had TIVOd from the past week on Hurricane Katrina. C-SPAN ran four hours of excellent coverage of a panel of authors from New Orleans on the anniversary of the storm and a February function at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth where contributing photographers from the Dallas Morning News book “Eyes of the Storm.”

There are lots of recriminations about what went wrong, and what continues to go wrong, but the most moving part was the images. Kathy Anderson of the Times-Picayune presented dozens of her photographs with the song Angel by Sarah McLaughlin, which would move anyone to tears.
Then the Dallas team played a slide show backed by “Louisiana 1927” as performed by Aaron Neville. The song is about the criminal dynamiting of the levees by the Governor of Louisiana during the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927. Author John Barry told the story so hauntingly in his book “Rising Tide.” Randy Newman wrote and performed the song originally on his album Good Old Boys. The song provided an emotional and poignant backdrop to the horrible aftermath.

One year ago, after returning from the Alabama Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina, I found myself becoming sadder and sadder as the images of New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast were beamed around the world. Going back and seeing those images brought back a flood of emotion

I spent the morning Saturday watching all of the documentaries and specials that I had TIVOd from the past week on Hurricane Katrina. C-SPAN ran four hours of excellent coverage of a panel of authors from New Orleans on the anniversary of the storm and a February function at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth where contributing photographers from the Dallas Morning News book “Eyes of the Storm.”

There are lots of recriminations about what went wrong, and what continues to go wrong, but the most moving part was the images. Kathy Anderson of the Times-Picayune presented dozens of her photographs with the song Angel by Sarah McLaughlin, which would move anyone to tears.
Then the Dallas team played a slide show backed by “Louisiana 1927” as performed by Aaron Neville. The song is about the criminal dynamiting of the levees by the Governor of Louisiana during the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927. Author John Barry told the story so hauntingly in his book “Rising Tide.” Randy Newman wrote and performed the song originally on his album Good Old Boys. The song provided an emotional and poignant backdrop to the horrible aftermath.

One year ago, after returning from the Alabama Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina, I found myself becoming sadder and sadder as the images of New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast were beamed around the world. Going back and seeing those images brought back a flood of emotion

Showers and thunderstorms were beginning to develop this afternoon in areas mainly south of I-59. A good cumulus field had developed in deeper moisture. There is a weak frontal boundary draped across Central Alabama and a weak trough is over eastern sections.

So far, the storms are not very strong, and they are up against conditions that are unfavorable for storm development. But any storms that do form will dump heavy rain and lotrs of lightning.

Isolated storms will form over North Alabama.

Temperatures have warmed well into the 80s across Central Alabama. A few locations will touch 90 by mid-afternoon.

The Saturday map discussion video is on the web, and available on iTunes:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

Don't forget that the map discussion is available in both WMV and MOV formats (Windows and Quicktime), so you have your choice for viewing.

After a busy week as Ernesto churned across Florida and up the Atlantic coastline, the weather has settled down somewhat around here. It looks like we will have great weather for the Labor Day weekend.

As Ernesto moves further from Alabama we have much drier air aloft over the state, but that dry air did not prevent some isolated showers from developing yesterday. I think the same thing will be possible today but most of us will remain dry. Temperatures will remain warm and above normal for this time of year with highs reaching the lower 90s in many locations.

There is not much change in our weather pattern until Tuesday when a weak cold front will approach the state. I'm not sure we'll see much rain even then because of limited moisture. We'll have to see how the moisture changes over the next several days, but the front may bring only scattered showers to the area with most areas remaining dry. Dewpoints should drop off somewhat with the cold front so the air will be a bit drier. Morning lows for the next week will be in the 60s with afternoon highs in the lower 90s through Monday and then dropping off into the upper 80s for the rest of the week.

Tropically the scene is fairly quiet. There are two distinct areas we are watching. One is moving through the Leeward Islands where upper level winds are just not favorable for any development. The second one is in the middle Atlantic and while somewhat disorganized at this time there is the potential for slow development over the next several days.

Dr. William Gray from Colorado State has revised his seasonal hurricane forecast downward. You can see David Black's post about his discussion with Dr. Gray down the list plus listen to the interview on the upcoming Weather Brains episode which should be posted around Tuesday.

Busy week coming up for me. I'll be filling in for John Oldshue tonight plus I've got the morning show all to myself this next week as Jason takes some time off. That Jason is a gutsy guy scheduling vacation in the heart of hurricane season, but he must be an excellent forecaster because it looks quiet for now in the tropics.

I hope you have a great Labor Day weekend. Be sure to find some time to spend with family and friends. I'll have another web video post tomorrow morning around 8:30 or so. Stayed up too late last night so the post today is a tad late from the usual time.

-Brian-