This will probably be our final update for this evening unless something unforseen happens. At 9 pm, only a few light showers lingered over Coosa, Jefferson and Blount County. High temperatures today:
97 in Dothan
96 in Muscle Shoals, Troy, Tuscaloosa, Crumly Chapel
95 at Shelby County Airport, Decatur, Montgomery, Wadley, Albertville
94 in Anniston, Birmingham, Huntsville, Hueytown
93 in Clay and Auburn
92 in Jasper and Mobile
MISCELLANEOUS STUFF FROM ALL OVER THE PLACE
* 33/40 Weather Watcher from Palm Harbor, Fla., reports 7.48 inches of rain since 2 o'clock this afternoon
* Shreveport got 3.50 inches of rain today (from the nervous weather that moved northward from the Gulf of Mexico)
* Todd Foisey in Anchorage experienced his first ever earthquake. He was on duty at the NWS Office, bot no major damage.
* 122 in Death Valley was the USA hot spot today. Wichita Falls, in North Texas had 107.
* Most significant happenings: It never reached 100 in Phoenix today, only 98, and the NWS in Flagstaff issued a rare Tornado Warning.
Final Alabama Update--9 pm Report
July 27, 2006, 9:04 pmLate Afternoon Storms Are Scarce--5:30 Report
July 27, 2006, 5:31 pm
They are still quite scarce late this afternoon. Just a small fraction of the state getting rain.
At 5:30 pm, the main showers or storms:
* Over SE Marengo County
* Central Butler County
* Between Monroeville and Brewton in Extreme South Alabama.
Movement is NE.
Only a few light showers over the north half of the state.
At 5:30 pm, the main showers or storms:
* Over SE Marengo County
* Central Butler County
* Between Monroeville and Brewton in Extreme South Alabama.
Movement is NE.
Only a few light showers over the north half of the state.
A Quiet Afternoon In The Weather Office
July 27, 2006, 3:22 pm
The Thursday afternoon map discussion video is on the web, and available on iTunes:
http://www.jamesspann.com/
The video discussion is now in QuickTime; for those of you using Internet Explorer the file has to download completely before you can watch it; it might take a minute or two. For users of Firefox and all other browsers, the video plays immediately as it downloads.
If you want to watch the video full screen, you can always use iTunes; you have that option. Just search the podcast section for ABC 33/40 Map Discussion, or James Spann, and you will find it.
I promise to write a post on my experience with the MacBook Pro by tomorrow night. I have been a Windows guy for over 10 years, so this was quite a move.
QUIET DAY: The radar sure is calm today. There are some healthy storms over the southwest part of the state, but even down there they are pretty scattered. Birmingham is at 92 degrees at 3:00... right where we should be time time of day at this time of year.
TOMORROW AND THE WEEKEND: You have to think that showers and storms will be more active as moisture arond here deepens. The primary moisture feed from the old system that was along the Texas coast earlier this week has been west of Alabama, but some of that will be moving in here tomorrow and over the weekend. So, we will continue to mention scattered, mainly afternoon showers and storms with intervals of sunshine and high temperatures around 90, or maybe a degree or two warmer.
Moist air will remain pooled across Alabama through much of next week, so scattered showers and storms will stay in the forecast. And, that is a good thing since we are still recovering from a very dry June and first half of July.
TROPICS: The disturbed area of weather around Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands has not changed much today, and upper air winds in that area don't favor tropical development. Everything else is quiet for now.
WEATHER PARTY: Come join our party... the new, cool weather site, Weatherparty.com:
http://www.weatherparty.com/
You determine what shows up on the front page... there is some great information over there and it is one of my first stops on the web daily. Register, and you can submit links to anything related to weather, and vote on the links that have been submitted. The top vote getters wind up on the front page.
GULF SHORES SKYCAM: A reminder our latest addition to the ABC 33/40 SKYCAM network is up and running down at the Phoenix AllSuites Hotel at Gulf Shores. You can see all of the images and weather data here:
http://www.abc3340.com/static/skycams/skycamsmain.html
I will have the next map discussion video available by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!
http://www.jamesspann.com/
The video discussion is now in QuickTime; for those of you using Internet Explorer the file has to download completely before you can watch it; it might take a minute or two. For users of Firefox and all other browsers, the video plays immediately as it downloads.
If you want to watch the video full screen, you can always use iTunes; you have that option. Just search the podcast section for ABC 33/40 Map Discussion, or James Spann, and you will find it.
I promise to write a post on my experience with the MacBook Pro by tomorrow night. I have been a Windows guy for over 10 years, so this was quite a move.
QUIET DAY: The radar sure is calm today. There are some healthy storms over the southwest part of the state, but even down there they are pretty scattered. Birmingham is at 92 degrees at 3:00... right where we should be time time of day at this time of year.
TOMORROW AND THE WEEKEND: You have to think that showers and storms will be more active as moisture arond here deepens. The primary moisture feed from the old system that was along the Texas coast earlier this week has been west of Alabama, but some of that will be moving in here tomorrow and over the weekend. So, we will continue to mention scattered, mainly afternoon showers and storms with intervals of sunshine and high temperatures around 90, or maybe a degree or two warmer.
Moist air will remain pooled across Alabama through much of next week, so scattered showers and storms will stay in the forecast. And, that is a good thing since we are still recovering from a very dry June and first half of July.
TROPICS: The disturbed area of weather around Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands has not changed much today, and upper air winds in that area don't favor tropical development. Everything else is quiet for now.
WEATHER PARTY: Come join our party... the new, cool weather site, Weatherparty.com:
http://www.weatherparty.com/
You determine what shows up on the front page... there is some great information over there and it is one of my first stops on the web daily. Register, and you can submit links to anything related to weather, and vote on the links that have been submitted. The top vote getters wind up on the front page.
GULF SHORES SKYCAM: A reminder our latest addition to the ABC 33/40 SKYCAM network is up and running down at the Phoenix AllSuites Hotel at Gulf Shores. You can see all of the images and weather data here:
http://www.abc3340.com/static/skycams/skycamsmain.html
I will have the next map discussion video available by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!
TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS
July 27, 2006, 10:27 am
FIRST--A QUICK LATE MORNING ALABAMA UPDATE
Not a single shower around Alabama at 10:15 am. The heaviest rain from that old wannabe tropical depression(it never became one) was over NW Louisiana and SW Arkansas. Down in SW Louisina, Lake Charles was flooded with 5.18 inches yesterday. Shreveport reports 1.56 in the last 24 hours.
204-DEGREE TEMPERATURE CONTRAST
Time to play a bit, although this is serious enough. At 10 this morning (Alabama time), there was a 204 degree difference in temperature between these two locations:
BASARAH, IRAQ
118 degrees with 9% humidity and wind NW at 28 mph. That would be almost like standing in front of one of the old blast furnaces that used to dot the skyline of Fairfield and Ensley. Remember the distinct nighttime glow on the city's west side years ago? Back in those days, TCI was the areas largest employer.
VOSTOK, ANTARCTICA
86 below zero with low drifting snow. That means that snow would be swirling around your feet and legs even though no additional snow was falling. Sustained winds were 17 mph sending the wind chill to 153 below zero. This means that James Spann, the only person I know that is as hot-natured as I am, would be wearing a coat, or at least a light sweater. That part of the workd is in mid-winter, of course.
While we are looking at both ends of the thermometer, the extremes around the lower 48 states of the good ole USA included 122 in Death Valley yesterday afternoon and 38 this morning at Stanley, Idaho, nestled in the Sawtooth Mountains.
I want to do a story on our 1952 heat wave real soon...
Weather and climate is very interesting ...and life goes on. I enjoyed the stories about haze by Drew and Jason posted earlier. Be sure and scroll down to see those.
Not a single shower around Alabama at 10:15 am. The heaviest rain from that old wannabe tropical depression(it never became one) was over NW Louisiana and SW Arkansas. Down in SW Louisina, Lake Charles was flooded with 5.18 inches yesterday. Shreveport reports 1.56 in the last 24 hours.
204-DEGREE TEMPERATURE CONTRAST
Time to play a bit, although this is serious enough. At 10 this morning (Alabama time), there was a 204 degree difference in temperature between these two locations:
BASARAH, IRAQ
118 degrees with 9% humidity and wind NW at 28 mph. That would be almost like standing in front of one of the old blast furnaces that used to dot the skyline of Fairfield and Ensley. Remember the distinct nighttime glow on the city's west side years ago? Back in those days, TCI was the areas largest employer.
VOSTOK, ANTARCTICA
86 below zero with low drifting snow. That means that snow would be swirling around your feet and legs even though no additional snow was falling. Sustained winds were 17 mph sending the wind chill to 153 below zero. This means that James Spann, the only person I know that is as hot-natured as I am, would be wearing a coat, or at least a light sweater. That part of the workd is in mid-winter, of course.
While we are looking at both ends of the thermometer, the extremes around the lower 48 states of the good ole USA included 122 in Death Valley yesterday afternoon and 38 this morning at Stanley, Idaho, nestled in the Sawtooth Mountains.
I want to do a story on our 1952 heat wave real soon...
Weather and climate is very interesting ...and life goes on. I enjoyed the stories about haze by Drew and Jason posted earlier. Be sure and scroll down to see those.
Tropical Air Going Nowhere
July 27, 2006, 5:52 am
The Thursday morning map discussion video is on the web, and also available on iTunes:
http://www.jamesspann.com/
The video is now being produced in the QuickTime video format. Thanks for being patient as we continue to experiment with formats, file sizes, etc. I know that for most of you the video did not play immediately in recent days; the "fast start" should be enabled on today's video, meaning it should play within a few seconds of choosing it within your browser.
One thing I have learned, Internet Explorer does NOT support "fast start" in Quicktime, meaning you have to wait a minute for the entire file to download. Firefox and all other browers do support fast start, and you should see the video immediately. Another good reason to dump IE for Firefox.
Also, I am aware that some of you are not able to play the video in the "full screen" mode; let me see how we can work around this.
NEW DAY, OLD FORECAST: Not much has changed this morning. Tropical air covers Alabama, with dewpoints generally in the low 70s statewide. No significant trigger for showers and storms today; and the deepest moisture from the old Texas Gulf coast disturbance remains to the west. So, showers and storms this afternoon should be widely scattered, and most spots should rise into the low 90s. Might even see some mid 90s over West Alabama.
TOMORROW/SATURDAY: The GFS looks pretty wet, but the NAM is much drier. The correct solution is probably somewhere in the middle. Seems like heights will be a little lower, and moisture a little deeper, so these two days might offer the best coverage of scattered showers and storms.
SUNDAY AND BEYOND: The GFS keeps a pretty good moisture pool over Alabama, but upper ridging will be in force as well. So, we will use the typical summer formula for now with temperatures near normal for mid-summer.
TROPICS: Not much happening out there for now; a wave is moving through the northeast Caribbean with no sign of development.
A busy day is ahead; I am doing a weather program this morning at Homewood Middle School at 9:00, and then have a series of meetings. But, the afternoon video should be posted close to schedule, around 3:30 this afternoon. My associate J.B. Elliott, the great Alabama weather legend, will be on watch today with blog duty in case something cranks up!
http://www.jamesspann.com/
The video is now being produced in the QuickTime video format. Thanks for being patient as we continue to experiment with formats, file sizes, etc. I know that for most of you the video did not play immediately in recent days; the "fast start" should be enabled on today's video, meaning it should play within a few seconds of choosing it within your browser.
One thing I have learned, Internet Explorer does NOT support "fast start" in Quicktime, meaning you have to wait a minute for the entire file to download. Firefox and all other browers do support fast start, and you should see the video immediately. Another good reason to dump IE for Firefox.
Also, I am aware that some of you are not able to play the video in the "full screen" mode; let me see how we can work around this.
NEW DAY, OLD FORECAST: Not much has changed this morning. Tropical air covers Alabama, with dewpoints generally in the low 70s statewide. No significant trigger for showers and storms today; and the deepest moisture from the old Texas Gulf coast disturbance remains to the west. So, showers and storms this afternoon should be widely scattered, and most spots should rise into the low 90s. Might even see some mid 90s over West Alabama.
TOMORROW/SATURDAY: The GFS looks pretty wet, but the NAM is much drier. The correct solution is probably somewhere in the middle. Seems like heights will be a little lower, and moisture a little deeper, so these two days might offer the best coverage of scattered showers and storms.
SUNDAY AND BEYOND: The GFS keeps a pretty good moisture pool over Alabama, but upper ridging will be in force as well. So, we will use the typical summer formula for now with temperatures near normal for mid-summer.
TROPICS: Not much happening out there for now; a wave is moving through the northeast Caribbean with no sign of development.
A busy day is ahead; I am doing a weather program this morning at Homewood Middle School at 9:00, and then have a series of meetings. But, the afternoon video should be posted close to schedule, around 3:30 this afternoon. My associate J.B. Elliott, the great Alabama weather legend, will be on watch today with blog duty in case something cranks up!
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