I have been an Atlanta Braves fan primarily since 1974. That was the year that Hank Aaron hit his milestone home run. I remember reading the Birmingham News avidly on Thursday, April 4, 1974, the day after the Jumbo day tornado outbreak. Everyone was wondering if Aaron would break the home run record in Cincinnati, or would it wait until he got home until Atlanta.

In March of 1975, the Braves came to Birmingham to play an exhibition game with the Baltimore Orioles. Knowing how much that I liked baseball, my dad got tickets for us and we went to Rickwood Field for the exhibition game.

My dad encouraged me to go down to the first base dugout to collect autographs during batting practice. I was very pleased to get autographs from such superstars as Henry Aaron, Phil Niekro, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and Boog Powel..

I was minding my own business, waiting patiently for another autograph from another Brave like Ralph Garr or Buzz Capra when this hand came out of nowhere and grabbed my souvenir program. It was handed back to me with a huge scrawl of an autograph written in big black marker on the cover. There with Darrell Evans, Biff Pocoroba and Dusty Baker was an autograph I did not want...Milo Hamilton at the time. I wish that I had that program today. It was lost over the years.

Now, Milo Hamilton is a Hall of Fame announcer for the Houston Astros. He is my favorite baseball announcer anywhere. It will be sad to see him retire at the end of the year.

Severe thunderstorm warning for Clay County...until 8:30 p.m.

A dangerous storm is moving across northern Clay County this evening. The head of the comma shaped storm will pass into southwestern Randolph County as it heads northeastward.

Strong straight line level winds will cause damage ahead of the storm as it moves across the above mentioned counties.

The severe weather is done for most of Alabama, wih the exception of the extreme eastern counties.

The list of counties still included in the severe thunderstorm watch continues to dwindle...

The following counties have recently cleared by the National Weather Service...including...BIBB... BLOUNT... DALLAS... JEFFERSON AND PERRY.

AUTAUGA... BALDWIN... BUTLER.... CALHOUN... CHAMBERS... CHEROKEE... CHILTON... CHOCTAW... CLARKE... CLAY.... CLEBURNE... CONECUH... COOSA... DEKALB.... ELMORE... ESCAMBIA.... ETOWAH... JACKSON.... LOWNDES.... MARSHALL.... MOBILE.... MONROE... MONTGOMERY... RANDOLPH... ST. CLAIR... SHELBY... TALLADEGA....TALLAPOOSA... WILCOX

At 7:15 p.m., the strongest storms were over Shelby and Coosa County, extending from Columbiana down to west of Rockford. These storms are capable of strong gusty winds, small hail, deadly lightning and torrential rains as they move northeast. They are near severe limits, but no warnings are in effect at this time.

Just to the southeast of there, a cluster of strong storms is over Elmore and Tallapoosa County approaching Dadeville.

Elsewhere, a large mass of light to moderate rain with occasional embedded thunderstorms covers much of the remainder of Alabama, extending back into eastern Mississippi.

An upper level disturbance moving out of southeastern Mississippi into western Alabama continues to fire thunderstorms this evening.

Fortunately, severe weather has been at a minimum. Currently the strongest storms in our area are over Northeast Alabama. A strong storm is over western Etowah County. These storms extend down into St. Clair County north of Riverside. The St. Clair County storms are weakening.

Storms with heavy rain cover much of Shelby County from Helena down to Calera.

The strongest storms in the state are over South Central Alabama from Clanton southward to northwest of Prattville.

Light to moderate rain covers much of western Alabama and eastern Mississippi.

The severe thunderstorm watch is being cancelled from west to east as rain cooled, stable air expands eastward behind the initial activity. The following counties have been cleared from the watch: Fayette... Greene... Hale... Lamar... Marengo... Marion... Pickens... Sumter... Tuscaloosa... Walker and Winston. Much of the rest of North and Central Alabama east of the cleared counties continues under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m.

So far, so good...thunderstorms are not very intense now...and no warnings are in effect at this time.

Thunderstorms are moving across Central Alabama this afternoon.

Storms are over the following locations...
...Large cluster over SW Jefferson, SE Tuscaloosa and northern Bibb Counties. This cluster is moving northeast at around 35-40 mph.
...Over southeastern Tusacaloosa County...from east of the city of Tuscaloosa down through the southeastern part of the county.
...Over Hale County...the strongest strom in the state is just south of Greensboro...it is moving northeast and will clip NW Perry County, passing NW of Marion. This storm is approaching severe limits and a warning may be required.

The storms contain lightning, torrential rains, gusty winds and possibly some small hail. The best chance for hail will be around Hueytown.

The airmass over West Alabama now has become rain cooled and relatively stable.

A disturbance moving northeastward out of Louisiana could fire storms later tonight and severe weather is possible later.

A severe thunderstorm watch continues for much of Alabama until 9 p.m.

The thunderstorm that is passing over downtown Birmingham now is no longer severe.

It previously had a wall cloud and produced some scattered wind damage in western Jefferson and Tuscaloosa County.

Strong storms over Tuscaloosa County are no longer considered to be severe. They will be moving northeast into Jefferson County later.

Storms over West Alabama have become severe...

Large hail and high winds likely in the stronger storms.

Our SKYCAM network site atop the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse recorded a wind gust of 54 mph within the hour.

A wall cloud moved over the University campus, but no tornado touched down. Some trees are down in Tuscaloosa, but the damage was due to straight line winds.

The Tuscaloosa County storm will move through the Birmingham metro area within the hour...

Other storms are growing stronger over other parts of West Alabama and East Mississippi.

See our SKYCAM shots and conditions here:

http://www.abc3340.com/static/skycams/skycamsmain.html

If we have a county go under a tornado warning we will be on our live stream...

**No afternoon map discussion video today**

Will keep this fairly short...

Surface based CAPE values are running around 1500 over much of Alabama... the air is fairly unstable, but we need to get into the mid 80s to really make the storms explode. Hopefully clouds will keep us in the low 80s for the rest of the afternoon.

However, current instability is sufficient for strong to severe storms later today and tonight as an upper trough approaches. We also note an MCV (mesoscale convective vortex) in radar returns over the southwest part of Mississippi; that feature seems to be rolling in our direction. That feature might enhance storm development over the central and southern part of Alabama.

Bottom line is that we still expect strong to severe storms over Alabama from around 3:00 until midnight. Large hail and strong winds will be the main threat, but an isolated tornado or two is not out of the question.

The weekend still looks dry; clearing tomorrow, sunny on Sunday.

We will keep the blog updated... J.B. Elliott will be arriving here in the office shortly. We will do our best to keep a fresh supply of Pop Tarts and Buffalo Rock for him!

It is a Severe thunderstorm Watch and it covers much of the state except the SE and Extreme NW until 9 o'clock tonight. Here is the full text:

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH NUMBER 233
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
125 PM CDT FRI APR 21 2006

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF

MUCH OF ALABAMA
WESTERN FLORIDA PANHANDLE
EASTERN MISSISSIPPI
SOUTHERN MIDDLE TENNESSEE

EFFECTIVE THIS FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 125 PM UNTIL 900
PM CDT.

HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70
MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 105
STATUTE MILES NORTH AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 30 MILES SOUTH
SOUTHWEST OF MERIDIAN MISSISSIPPI TO 35 MILES NORTHEAST OF
ANNISTON ALABAMA. FOR A COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE
ASSOCIATED WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU3).

REMEMBER...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE
FAVORABLE FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH
AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR
THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS
AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY
DO PRODUCE TORNADOES.

OTHER WATCH INFORMATION...CONTINUE...WW 232...

DISCUSSION...LINES/CLUSTERS OF INTENSE THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE
EASTWARD FROM MS INTO AL THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING. AIR MASS
IN THIS REGION HAS BECOME MODERATELY UNSTABLE...WITH DEEP LAYER
VERTICAL SHEAR PROFILES FAVORABLE FOR ORGANIZED/SEVERE CONVECTION.
DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL APPEAR TO BE THE MAIN THREAT.

AVIATION...A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT
TO 2 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND GUSTS TO 60
KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500. MEAN STORM
MOTION VECTOR 25030.

Still not much going on in Alabama.

Scattered small light showers over the north half of the state. However, a very small thunderstorm has formed near Moundville near the Hale-Tuscaloosa County line.

When West Alabama thunderstorms start developing, they will probably do so quickly.

Main action still looks to be mid to late aftenoon and well into the night.