March Madness is in full swing within the ABC 33/40 weather staff:


Jason Simpson is amazed at J.B. Elliott's long jumper.


I have no idea what kind of shot this is, but at least the ball is going in the right direction


Jason gets aggressive on defense.

Thankfully we got through the game with no injuries. Thanks to Jason Simpson for hosting this hoop heaven party, and to Josh Johnson for the grill work!

Oh boy.

The cover of Time Magazine in bold letters says:” Be Worried. Be VERY Worried”.

The story? “Global warming”, of course. The darling of the media these days.

Time’s Jeffrey Kluger proclaims: “No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us.”

He goes on to report: “Environmentalists and lawmakers spent years shouting at one another about whether the grim forecasts were true, but in the past five years or so, the serious debate has quietly ended. Global warming, even most skeptics have concluded, is the real deal, and human activity has been causing it. “

Maybe Mr. Kluger needed to watch our special this past Sunday night. Our own Brian Peters interview Dr. John Christy, the Alabama State Climatologist, who spoke the truth about “global warming”. It is the truth the nation media continues to ignore. Dr. Christy has done countless hours of research on this issue using satellite data, and has concluded that there has been slight warming in recent years, explained by the cyclic nature of our climate. He attributes the national media hysteria to flawed computer models that are simply wrong about future warming trends globally.

We must remember that good weather records go back to 1880… that is a tiny slice of time considering how long this planet has been around. Trying to prove long term climate change with such a tiny amount of data is just about impossible. Yes, the issue needs research and study, but the politics need to be taken out of the equation. And, quite frankly, journalists are not qualified to be climatologists. I suggest they stay out of the mix as well!

We have posted the ABC 33/40 Storm Alert 2006 TV special on the web site... it is available on the video page:

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

The direct link is here:

http://beta.abc3340.com/static/weather/video/sa2006.wmv

I strongly recommend watching Brian's excellent "global warming" interview with Dr. John Christy from UAH, the Alabama State Climatologist. This is the best "global warming" piece I have seen... and something you won't see on most national TV networks or in the print media. Compare Dr. Christy's comments to Time Magazine this week!

The Monday afternoon map discussion video is on the server:

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

Don't see much reason to change our thinking from early this morning...

Looks like showers are likely tomorrow with a weak surface boundary, but no really heavy rain and no chance of severe weather.

There is a good chance Wednesday will be a dry and mild day, then we bring back the chance of scattered showers on Thursday as moisture deepens.

A fairly decent round of rain and storms is likely at the end of the week late Friday and Friday night. A few strong strorms will be possible, but the primary dynamics will pass well to the north of the state, and a big severe weather setup doesn't look very likely.

WEEKEND PEEK: The weekend ahead still looks pretty good with dry and mild weather on Saturday and Sundayt with highs well up in the 70s.

Another setup for rain and storms shows up in about one week, Monday and Tuesday of next week (April 3-4). The system doesn't look especially robust, but seems like every year we have wild weather on those dates, so we will watch the model trends in coming days.

OVERDUE! We have mentioned here a number of times we feel Alabama is overdue for an active spring severe weather season. Our last major spring tornado was 8 years ago, on April 8, 1998 (the Oak Grove F5). It has been even longer since Mississippi has had a major spring tornado. See this note from Alan Gerard, the Jackson NWS Meteorologist In Charge:

"In the Jackson County Warning Area, we have not had a strong tornado in the month of March in over 10 years. The last strong tornado in March in our CWA was on March 7, 1995, in Tensas Parish, LA. The only other strong tornadoes in March since 1990 in our CWA occurred on March 9-10, 1992. That was also the event that had the last violent tornado in March in our CWA, which occurred in Washington/Sharkey/Humphreys counties - there was also a strong tornado during that event in Lauderdale county. Just to give some idea of how unusual this is, in the southeast United States March is the second most active month for strong tornadoes, ranking just behind April."

We sure hope this isn't the year that features the return of major spring severe weather events, but we have to be ready.

NOTES: I am going to try and post the Storm Alert 2006 special over on the video page this evening... and, we will be taping this week's Weather Brains podcast tonight, and that should be available early tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!

The next map discussion video will be ready by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!

ALABAMA
24 at Black Creek with heavy frost (NE Etowah County)
25 in DeSoto State Park
27 in Crossville and Ft. Payne
28 in Meridianville
29 in Decatur
31 in Huntsville
32 in Cullman, Albertville, Muscle Shoals, Anniston, Tuscaloosa
33 in Montgomery
38 in Mobile
41 at Birmingham Airport

REGIONAL
13 on Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina with 6 inches of snow
17 at Beech Mountain, North Carolina, 12 inches of snow
19 on Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, 5 inches of snow
17 on Newfound Gap (Smoky Mountains) with 2 inches of snow
10 on Mt. LeConte (Smoky Mountains) with 15 inches of snow

NATIONAL
0 at Stanley, Idaho in the Sawtooth Mountains
36 below at Deadhorse, Alaska

OTHER NOTES:
2.65 inches of rain in the last 24 hours at Honolulu. The Hawaiian Islands have had a long drawnout problem with excessive rain and flood problems.

Interesting to note that both Tuscaloosa and Anniston were 9 degrees colder than Birmingham Airport this morning. It is a situation where Birmingham Airport is in such a wide open space and the wind was beginning to stir starting our warming trend. Birmingham was 17 degrees warmer than Black Creek.

The Monday morning map discussion video is on the server:

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

Early this morning, temperatures are below freezing at a number of locations. Not the Birmingham Airport; they are showing 42 degrees at 5:00 a.m. with an east wind at 7 mph. But, other observations include 28 at Gadsden, 32 at Anniston, and 33 at Tuscaloosa. Looks most of the outlying areas are at or below freezing. I have to wonder if this is the last freeze for Alabama this season. We see no really cold air in here for the next seven days, and the odds of a freeze get much smaller as we get into April. We have passed the average date of the last freeze here, which is March 23.

But, having said all of that, we have seen freezing temperatures here as late as April 23. So, it certainly is possible to have another freeze, but at this point I would say it is unlikely.

THIS WEEK: Today should be dry and pleasant, with the mercury reaching the mid 60s this afternoon. That will feel like a heat wave; the last time we had a high of 60 degrees or warmer was back on Tuesday of last week, March 21.

Clouds return tonight, and we will mention a chance of some rain at times tomorrow as a weak surface boundary slips into the state. Some thunder is not out of the question, but severe weather or heavy rain should not be a problem.

I think Wednesday will be dry, as the mercury rises into the upper 60s. Some spots might touch 70 degrees on Wednesday as the warming trend continues.

Moisture returns on Thursday, and we will bring back the chance of a few scattered showers. Not an all day rain or a wash-out. To the west, a severe weather situation should be unfolding Thursday for much of the nation's mid-section, in the general area from Dallas-Fort Worth to Chicago.

That system will move north of Alabama, but the trailing front should bring a band of showers and storms in here late Friday and Friday night. Severe weather potential at this time looks rather small with the main dynamics passing well to the north.

THE WEEKEND: If you believe the 06Z GFS, the weekend will be dry with mild afternoons. But, I caution you the models have been all over the road. The GFS suggests rain on Saturday will be confined to the southern third of the state, and most all of the state looks dry on Sunday. We will roll with that for now, but be aware there is potential for change in the weekend outlook as the week rolls along.

The next impulse will bring more rain and storms to the state by Monday or Tuesday of the following week (April 3-4).

STORM ALERT 2006: If you missed our TV special last night on ABC 33/40, I will try to get that posted to the web today or tomorrow. Thanks to Bill Castle for his great work as always. He is the guy who makes the Storm Alert tour and TV special happen every year.

SKYCAM NETWORK: Be sure and scroll down to see Brian's pictures from the installation of the new ABC 33/40 SkyCam Network camera atop Mt. Cheaha. We are hoping our new cameras will be up and running soon at Gadsden, Inverness, and downtown Birmingham. There will be 11 in all on the network within the next couple of months. Our friends at Stratus Station are working on getting still images and current conditions from the sites on our web site. Stay tuned...

TIME CHANGE: Warning... we lose an hour of sleep this coming weekend. We go on Daylight Saving Time this Sunday morning (April 2) at 2:00 a.m. That also means we get computer model data one hour later, since models are run based on UTC and NOT local time. DST is not exactly my favorite thing... but I guess the extra hour of sunlight in the evening is nice.

GOSHEN TORNADO TRAGEDY: From Bill Murray's discussion over on the seven day page: What began as a peaceful Palm Sunday quickly changed to a black day day in Alabama weather history when a powerful tornado ripped through northeast Alabama and northern Georgia on this date in 1994. By the time the storm was over twenty-two were dead and ninety-two were injured by the twister. An F4 tornado cut a 50 mile path from Ragland in St. Clair, County Alabama to the Georgia line. The most disastrous damage occurred at Goshen, where the twister struck the Goshen United Methodist Church at 11:37 am. Twenty people were killed at the church, which did not hear the tornado warning issued ten minutes earlier by the National Weather Service in Birmingham.

If you get specific, the tornado warning was issued for southern Cherokee and northern Calhoun counties at 11:27 a.m., and the church building was destroyed at 11:39 a.m.

You can see a thirty minute TV special we did on the disaster on our video page:

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

Just scroll down until you see the "Palm Sunday Tornado Special". Pastor Kelly Clem's story is breathtaking.

I will have the next map discussion video posted today by 3:30!