Many of us have enjoyed body surfing off the beautiful beaches of Alabama and Northwest Florida. Some of us have entered the water when red flags were flying or conditions were too rough. Fortunately, most of us have been lucky. But about 100 people each year lose their lives by drowning when they are caught in rip tides. Rip currents, or undertows, as they are commonly known are drowning machines.

People who lose their lives in undertows generally are not knowledgeable about what to do when they encounter one. They panic as they are carried farther away from the beach and struggle against the strong current. They generally fight to swim directly toward the beach and tire quickly. Then they drown. Many times, the victims are children. Often, a tragedy occurs when a parent jumps in to save the struggling child and drowns also. There have even been cases where the child was rescued, but the rescuer drowned.

If you do get caught in a rip current, do not panic. Do not attempt to swim across the current. Instead, swim parallel to the beach in either direction until you are out of the current. Rip currents are usually narrow, generally less than one hundred yards in width. If the current is too strong to escape, just relax and go with the flow until you reach the “head” area, where the current diminishes and spreads out. Then you can swim back to the beach on a parallel course.

Often, rip currents occur on days which otherwise feature beautiful weather. Large swells from a distant hurricane or tropical storm can result in severe rip current conditions. A few years ago, weak Tropical Storm Allison caused several fatalities along the beaches of Northwest Florida when it was making landfall near Houston.

The National Weather Service has developed a scale which ranks the threat of rip currents based on weather data and wave models. The 0-5 scale Lushine Rip Current Scale rates the daily danger. When a threat exists, the Weather Service communicates it in special statements and forecasts. Tomorrow: rip current safety rules.

The Saturday, May 21, web video has been posted at

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

Quite an afternoon and evening for much of Alabama with severe thunderstorm warnings. Some places got golf ball size hail and nearly everyone got 30 to 40 mph wind, some rain though amounts varied substantially, and lots of lightning. ABC 3340 Chief Photographer Bill Castle and I were on top of the ridge at Weatherly and had a spectacular view as the line of storms moved through the area. Some brilliant cloud to ground strikes - fortunately, none in our vicinity - and a fairly nice looking shelf cloud as the outflow approached just ahead of the heavy rain. But from what I saw of radar, we didn't go through the worst of the storms. Didn't plan too well, either, and got soaked as my rain gear was at home!! Got to work on a better arrangement in the future.

Beautiful day in store for much of the state. East central locations were cloudy this morning with a wedge pattern set up giving them clouds and cooler temperatures. This is not the classic wedge pattern and should mix out as the day wears on.

Next weather will probably come on Sunday night and Monday as weak front comes into the area. These northwest flow patterns can be challenging. This is especially true if large thunderstorm complexes called meso-scale convective systems (MCS) or meso-scale convective complexes (MCC) develop in the central plains and move southeast in the northwest flow aloft. These can last for many hours and bring some serious weather threats a long way from their origination points. Surely something to keep our eyes open for.

Great time at the Hoover Met last night as ABC 3340 sponsored the game. Jason Simpson threw out the first pitch. He and I enjoyed talking to folks and hope to get a chance to do it again. The 3340 on-air folks will be at Bruno's Memorial Classic today and Sunday so stop by our tent near the 18th green if you get the opportunity.

-Brian-