On the afternoon of May 27, 1973, Birmingham had already endured one line of severe thunderstorms. As an eleven year old, I thought the worst was over and headed out to the back yard to lay baseball. Over at the National Weather Service on West Oxmoor Road, the forecasters there did. They issued a statement around 4 p.m. or so, alerting people in the Birmingham area to that fact. I didn’t hear it.

We were having fun when my mom came to the back door and called us in about 5:45. It was very early, so we would normally have complained vociferously. But she had a special tone of voice that she used when she absolutely meant business. We dropped the bats and balls and headed for the house. “What’s the matter,” I asked as we approached the steps. “Get inside, now,” she said tersely. When we made it inside, she pointed to the side window. There, I could clearly see the to of a tornado funnel about one mile away, in the area of File Mile Road. “Oh my goodness,” I exclaimed, “that’s a big tornado!” About that time, the wind and heavy rain on the back side of the storm reached us and we ran for cover in the interior hallway. As we huddled there, the power went out.

Once the worst had passed,, we went back into the living room and grabbed my battery operated Patrolman 6 police radio. There were no radio stations talking about the weather at that time on a Sunday, so we were literally and figuratively in the dark until the power came back on. We heard the report on television that the tornado had struck Center Point. That storm was near Palmerdale. Another tornado was moving through Central Alabama. It had struck the Centreville radar station. That was scary. We later would learn that the tornado also destroyed much of the town of Brent, where five people lost their lives.

After school the next day, we saw the sobering sight of the Center Point house where a man died covering his children in the basement as the tornado roared over. They survived, as did his wife, who I think had gone upstairs for a flashlight.

Been peeking at weather data this afternoon... had a few questions about weather for the next 24 hours from people involved with the SEC baseball tournament at the Hoover Met, and others getting ready for big events like weddings.

Showers have been basically non-existent today. I did my best in the last discussion here to suggest that rain would not be a big issue today or tomorrow, but that Monday would be the big rain day. Everything still looks that way.

Had a little light rain early this morning with the first impulse, but we should be in great shape tonight. A clear sky, and pleasant temperatures.

The GFS model looks totally out to lunch for tomorrow. The NAM is performing very well in this pattern, and suggests most of the day tomorrow will be dry. I think the SEC title game tomorrow afternoon will be played with only a small risk of rain. Looks like the big rain event will come after midnight tomorrow night into the day on Memorial Day. Monday still looks like the big rain day for the state.

The NAM extraction shows 1.25" of rain here during the next 84 hours, while the GFS goes nuts with 5.03" through 60 hours. I think the NAM is much closer to being accurate. Most places will probably get between 1 and 1.5 inches of rain on Monday.

I don't expect much of a severe weather threat with the rain late tomorrow night and Monday; instability parameters are very marginal and wind fields relatively weak.... Just a wet day with some thunder and lightning. Not great timing, but nothing really dangerous and we do indeed need the rain!