When I was a kid I had a Heath kit weather station that I built. It was pretty flimsy and didn't last long in the Florida sunshine, but it was pretty neat to record my own weather observations. And for years afterward, I kept wanting to get a really good weather station. But it seemed that there were always higher priorities for our money, so it kept getting put off.

In the summer of 2001, I finally got my own weather station. It was a wireless version of Davis Instruments Vantage Pro. And boy was I proud. I could record my own weather observations electronically and post them to my web site where I could check out my temperatures or rainfall wherever I could find an Internet connection. And it had wind measurements. That was always the element that kept me from getting a weather station until technology finally brought the cost down while keeping the quality pretty high.

So now I have almost four years of weather records - a limited climatology for my location - so when I noticed that today's rainfall of 1.01 inches brought my monthly total to 8.67 inches, I got to wondering just where that stands in my climatology. After quickly running through all my data, I found that this July is the fifth wettest month in my records since December, 2001. The highest rainfall values recorded here include:
13.29" in May, 2003
11.41" in November, 2004
9.48" in September, 2002
9.41" in June, 2003
8.67" in July, 2005 [so far]

Okay, my period of record is pretty short. So I decided to use the climate query found via the Birmingham National Weather Service web site. After all, the climate data for Birmingham goes back into the late 1800s, so that ought to give me a better idea of how wet my July value is.

It turns out that my July rain total of 8.67 inches would tie the 101st wettest month ever recorded at the official observing site. 101st out of about 1315 monthly observations means that my value is actually in the top 8 percent of wettest months for central Alabama.

And we still have ten days in this month to record even more rain! Pretty wet, huh?

-Brian-

Most of the strong thunderstorms had diminished across Alabama by 7:15 this evening.

The Flash Flood Warning for the central parts of both Shelby and Jefferson County expired at 7:15.

Most of the heavier rain seemed to dodge the official airport gages this afternoon. Examples:

0.06 at Birmingham Airport
0.05 at Shelby County Airport
0.02 at Anniston Airport
0.00 (that spells none) at Tuscaloosa Airport.

Some other early reports:

0.68 in Anniston (Alabama Power Company)
1.09 in Clanton
1.51 at Colvin Gap along the Etowah-Calhoun County line
0.44 in Fort Payne

As soon as all reports are in, we surely will hear of some two-inch amounts in parts of Jefferson and Shelby County. Brian Peters reported an inch in Helena plunging the temperature to 75 at mid-afternoon.

Some official high temperatures today:

93 in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa
94 in Anniston

WTNT31 KNHC 220001
TCPAT1
BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM FRANKLIN SPECIAL ADVISORY NUMBER 2
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
8 PM EDT THU JUL 21 2005

...SIXTH TROPICAL STORM OF THE 2005 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON
FORMS...

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTHWESTERN BAHAMAS
FOR ELEUTHERA... NEW PROVIDENCE... THE BERRY ISLANDS... THE
ABACOS... AND GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE
INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED
BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

FRANKLIN IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 14 MPH ...22
KM/HR...AND THIS MOTION...WITH A GRADUAL DECREASE IN FORWARD
SPEED...IS EXPECTED FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE INDICATE THAT MAXIMUM
SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE INCREASED AND ARE NEAR 45 MPH... 75
KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. SOME STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING
THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 30 MILES
... 45 KM FROM THE CENTER.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1009 MB...29.80 INCHES.

FRANKLIN COULD PRODUCE RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES OVER
THE NORTHWESTERN BAHAMAS.

REPEATING THE 8 PM EDT POSITION...25.8 N... 76.0 W. MOVEMENT
TOWARD...NORTHWEST NEAR 14 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED
WINDS... 45 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1009 MB.

THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT
11 PM EDT.

FORECASTER KNABB

Strongest thunderstorms at 6:30 pm in two locations:

1. Extreme East Alabama along the Cleburne-Randolph County line. Producing heavy rain and lots of lightning. Cluster of storms moving south generally toward Wedowee and Roanoke.

2. Over SW edge of Jefferson County along the Tuscaloosa County line. Moving slowly SW into East Tuscaloosa County.

Otherwise, storms winding down. They have greatly diminished over Jefferson and Shelby County where a Flash Flood Warning continues until 7:15 for parts of both counties. Warning still in effect for runoff.

When reports come in this evening, we will see a number of rainfall reports in excess of two inches.

TROPICAL STORM FRANKLIN TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE

NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL

655 PM EDT THU JUL 21 2005

AT ABOUT 630 PM EDT... 2230Z... DATA FROM THE AIR FORCE

RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATED THAT MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS IN

TROPICAL DEPRESSION SIX HAD INCREASED TO 40 MPH. THEREFORE THE

SYSTEM IS BEING UPGRADED TO TROPICAL STORM FRANKLIN. DETAILS WILL

FOLLOW IN A SPECIAL ADVISORY TO BE ISSUED BY 8 PM EDT... 0000Z.

I live about 1 mile from downtown Talladega and we have recieved about 3 or 4 inches of rain in about 1 hour. Just thought that I would let the weather team know that the rain is still coming down and a slower rate now but we are now floating in like I said about 3 or 4 inches of water at this time.

Big thunderstorms in North-Central Alabama late this afternoon.

The NWS has issued a Flash Flood Warning for Central Jefferson County and Central Shelby County until 7:15. Doppler radar indicated flash flooding from numerous thunderstorms in the area. Included in the warning (among other places) are:

Pelham
Alabaster
Helena
Cahaba Heights
Homewood
Lake Purdy

In addition, Shades Creek, the Cahaba River and Camp Branch Creek will likely experience quick and abrupt rises.

Already an inch of rain at Helena and their temperature dropped to 75.

Our radar system (ABC 33/40 Pinpoint Doppler Radar) is not available online now... we have lost communication with the site atop Double Oak Mountain in Shelby county. The radar is working fine, we just can't get the data. Our engineers are working with Bellsouth... not sure if we have an issue with the line going up there, or if the problem is on our end at the site. The minute it comes back up the data will show up on the Internet again. You can use Birmingham NEXRAD from the NWS...

Looks like we have Franklin on our hands now...

000
WONT41 KNHC 211827
DSAAT
SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
227 PM EDT THU JUL 21 2005

A SHIP IN THE VICINITY OF THE STRONG TROPICAL WAVE LOCATED JUST EAST
OF THE CENTRAL BAHAMAS HAS RECENTLY ESTIMATED WINDS TO TROPICAL
STORM FORCE. SATELLITE IMAGERY AND RADAR DATA FROM THE BAHAMAS
INDICATE THIS SYSTEM HAS CONTINUED TO BECOME BETTER ORGANIZED
TODAY. AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT IS
CURRENTLY ENROUTE TO DETERMINE IF A TROPICAL DEPRESSION OR A
TROPICAL STORM HAS DEVELOPED.

FORECASTER STEWART/AVILA

The Thursday afternoon map discussion video is on the server:

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

Wow... about about those two blow-ups in the tropics. One is just east of the Bahamas, and the second one is south of Cuba. The one south of Cuba is headed toward Central America or the Yucatan peninsula; it might emerge over the Bay of Campeche and hit the Mexican Gulf coast in a few days, but no issue here.

The first one I mentioned sure looks good and should become tropical storm Franklin within the next 24 hours. Models are all over the road on this one; the GFDL recurves the system without impacting the U.S. The LBAR takes it to near Daytona Beach, while the BAMM runs are more to the south, moving the storm across the Florida peninsula and then winding up in the Gulf of Mexico.

Steering currents will be very weak over the next few days, and it might not be in a hurry to go anywhere. We should get the first recon reports from the system shortly...

AROUND HERE: Hot, humid, afternoon storms. You know the story... highs will be mostly in the 90 to 94 degree range through the weekend. I still think with Alabama being on the eastern edge of the heat bubble we might have some fairly active storms around here later today, and tomorrow and Saturday afternoon. Heights rise on Sunday and Monday which should mean fewer showers and storms. Of course, if we have a tropical system in the Gulf early next week all bets are off.

It could very well be the next five days will be the hottest period this summer; the long range GFS output shows lower heights around here as we get into August. But, trust me, summer still has has a long, long way to go.

Thanks to Brian Peters for handling the morning map discussion videos this week while I fill in for Johnson and Johnson on WZZK... everything gets back to normal next week.