Hard to believe I am writing one of my last posts here for 2004. I will work the night shift Friday night on ABC 33/40, but next week I will be on vacation. I have not worked a Christmas Eve shift in about 15 years; I am actually looking forward to working with our radar equipment looking for you know who on his sleigh. One thing is for sure, Santa will feel right at home around here this year.

I am sure Bill Murray and J.B. Elliott will spend some time next week looking back at the big weather stories for 2004. There is no doubt the big one for Alabama was Hurricane Ivan, a classical long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that scored a direct hit on the Alabama Gulf coast on September 16. Ivan was an upper category three storm at landfall with sustained winds of around 130 mph.

Hurricane Ivan will compare with the worst hurricanes to ever to affect the Alabama Gulf coast since 1900, including Frederic in September 1979, Opal in October 1995, and the September 1926 hurricane. Ivan produced estimated maximum winds of 60 to 80 mph generally southwest of line from Prattville to Livingston. A few spots may have reached 90 mph in this area. Most other locations across central Alabama had estimated maximum wind speeds of 50 to 60 mph, with a few isolated spots reaching 75 mph. Tree and power line damage was extensive. Flooding was also serious, with rainfall amounts nearing 10 inches in the Birmingham area.
The fall tornado season was also active again, with three early morning outbreaks in November and December. The biggest event came on November 24, when 16 tornadoes touched down across central Alabama. Two people were killed, one due to a falling tree caused by a tornado near Bynum, and another due to flash flooding in St. Clair county.

What's ahead for 2005? Only time will tell, but you bet we will be ready for whatever comes our way. As J.B. says.... life goes on, and we love it. May God richly bless you and your family this Christmas.

The afternoon video update is on the server now:

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

That will be my last video update until 2005. Brian Peters will be going the Internet video updates for me next week while I am on vacation.

Not much change in the forecast; very cold through Christmas; much warmer next week and into the first part of January.

Went out for some errands this morning and saw snowflakes. Nothing but light snow flurries, but pretty nice to see in the air this time of the year...

Sure has been an exciting 24 hours for Little Miss Molly. Last night was the annual grandkids "spend-the-night" to bake and decorate Christmas cookies, play games and just have fun.

All this despite the fact that my wife had knee surgery yesterday. She is doing fine.

Molly loves all six of the grandkids dearly and when they are around, Miss Molly cancells all of her naps. I took the little rascal out for a late night walk in the wind and rain. By then she was way, way short on her beauty sleep. When I took her out again this morning the weather had changed completely. The wind chill was somewhere way down in the pits. After Miss Molly did her "business" and again tried to cover it up, I mentioned the word "treat" and she headed for home at breakneck speed pulling me behind her. That is a magic word for her and one sure way to get her to want to come back home.

One of our readers sent an interesting email explaning that when dogs try to scratch the ground and "cover up" their bathroom business, that, in reality, they are scratching out their territory, leaving their scent, to warn other dogs not to invade. That's interesting. I knew tigers, lions and other wild animals did that.

I got up at 5 this morning and Molly was at a fever pitch wanting to awaken the grandkids. Instead, I picked her up and tippy-toed into my weather office and shut the door. Then I sneaked into the kitchen to get my first delicious, delectable and flat-out great tasting cup of Maxwell House. Molly knew I would be back in a minute or so. When I opened the office door to come back in, she shot between my legs like a minute-man missle. In about three huge leaps, she became airborne and landed on one of the grandkids sleeping on the couch and was all over her trying to wake her up. Today, Molly has had zero naps afraid that she will miss something. But when the kids go home, Miss Molly will sleep most of two days. Hey, I may get a break! Life goes on whether it be warm or wind chill in the teens!

A snowstorm of historic proportions has crippled parts of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky in the last 24 hours. To show how serious the situation is, look at these reports...

.....In Southern Indiana, 24 inches of snow now on the ground at Washington, but drifts are five feet deep. The town of Crawford also has five-foot drifts.

....Parts of Kentucky now buried in a snowfall that is more than they normally get in an entire winter.

.....In Northern kentucky, Hancock has 17 to 19 inches of snow average depth but drifts reach five feet.

.....Lots of motorists stranded in the heavy snow areas. In Cincinnati, thousands of people are without power.

.....At Scottsburg, Indiana, 29 inches of snow fell from this storm. That town is on Interstate 65 in Southern Indiana about 30 miles due north of Louisville. I will always remember that town because we were stranded there for a long time several years ago due to flash-flooding. That is the first and only time I have ever experienced an interstate completely under water.

(See also our Weather Along The Highways below for travel weather)

It has turned much colder over much of Alabama since you went to bed last evening. Even though the precipitation is mostly over, remember there is still some leftover moisture on the roads--especially the poorly drained ones. With temperatures in the 20s, watch for some spots of ice this morning--including the Birmingham Metro Area. As of 7 am, it looks like this:

ALABAMA
Fort Payne 30, cloudy
Cullman 27, cloudy
Muscle Shoals 22, cloudy
Huntsville 24, cloudy, wind chill 12
Gadsden 28, cloudy
Tuscaloosa 27, cloudy, 20 MPH winds
Birmingham 27, cloudy, north wind averaging 20 MPH, wind chill 13
Montgomery 37, cloudy
Anniston 34, cloudy, falling fast
Mobile 32 cloudy, wind chill 21
Dothan 46, cloudy

REGIONAL
Clarksville, Tenn., 15, cloudy
Knoxville 37, rain
Nashville 19, cloudy
Memphis 18, clear
Atlanta 46, cloudy
Jackson 27, cloudy
Little Rock 16, clear
Harrison, Ark., 7 above zero, clear
Louisville 21, sleet

A national scan (excluding Alaska) shows that 7 am temperatures varied from 29 below zero at Cook, Minnesota to 75 at Boca Raton, Florida. We will surely see lower temperatures later this morning when all the reports are in. Don't be surprised to hear of about 35 below in places like Embarrass or Tower, Minnesota. The highest pressure in the "Lower 48" at 7 am, CST, was 30.83 inches (1044 millibars) at Wolfe Point, Montana. That is out on the open plains of NE Montana where there is nothing to slow the cold north wind.

We will update our travel forecast a little later this morning

Morning video update is ready to roll:

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

Cold is the word; temperatures are below freezing now from Birmingham north and west, with some single digit wind chill values in place. Cold and dry weather continues through Christmas; then a pattern change means much warmer weather ahead next week. This is the last cold air blast for a while.

As I expected, had a few nasty e-mail messages this morning from people angry that "the winter storm we forecast was a no show". My response is simple; we NEVER forecast a winter storm for last night. The great thing about this blog is that everything is in writing!

See this: http://www.jamesspann.com/bmachine/wxtalk.php?id=135

Of course, when we do make a bad forecast, we can't hide!

And, to make it perfectly clear, my problem is not with the local NWS folks, it is with their system that mandates a formal winter storm advisory or warning for a rather insignificant event. I also suggest the NWS folks in Fort Worth and Washington look at all of the confusing types of advisories they use. Most folks, myself included, are befuddled when the maps on the TV screen show 10 different kinds of advisories in colors that look like a rainbow.

Gonna finish radio weather this morning and go out and get some batteries for Christmas morning. I learned long ago you better have plenty of all types ready for any situation!