The final numbers are in from Sunday’s tornado outbreak in Alabama, associated with the remnant circulation of former hurricane Rita. National Weather Service survey teams confirmed a total of eleven tornadoes: 8 of them in Tuscaloosa county, 2 in Winston county, and the other one in west Alabama’s Sumter county. Three of the tornadoes were rated F1 on the Fujita intensity scale, while the other eight were rated F0.

The most memorable tornado for us was the one captured live on the air during our “wall to wall” coverage Sunday, which lasted for about seven hours. This F1 tornado was seen live on ABC 33/40 for about 15 minutes as it moved across the western part of Tuscaloosa county. That same tornado was responsible for two injuries at a trailer park in Buhl. We made that video available on the Internet, and it has been downloaded thousands of times by people all over the world.

Our tower camera in Tuscaloosa has an amazing view of the western sky, and also captured the December 16, 2000 F4 tornado which killed 11 people in the southern part of Tuscaloosa county. That camera is located about 400 feet up on the old WCFT-TV tower, which is right by I-59/20 in the eastern part of Tuscaloosa at the old Channel 33 studio site. That is where I started my television career way back in 1978. Channel 33’s signal now is transmitted from a huge 2,000 foot tower in the northeast part of Tuscaloosa county east of Windham Springs, but that old tower has served us well with that camera being up there.

While September tornado events are relatively rare, we must remember we are coming up on our fall tornado season, in November and early December. Hopefully Sunday’s event will get us thinking about tornado safety!

I ran across a couple of items that I thought you might find interesting concerning NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, parent agency to the National Weather Service. NOAA and the NWS have been tasked in recent weeks with many facilities and employees affected by the storms. These items are just a couple of thousands of efforts by the folks who staff these agencies.

NOAA's National Hurricane Center (NHC) Director, Max Mayfield, was named ABC’s person of the week this past week! Max and his team have clearly done an exemplary job and they are very deserving of this recognition. Max and NHC Deputy Director Ed Rappaport hosted Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at NHC this week and provided a briefing on hurricanes and tropical storm prediction. David L. Johnson, Director of the NWS, also briefed Secretary Chertoff on NOAA’s response and recovery efforts for Katrina and Rita.

People were not the only ones stranded by recent hurricanes! On Monday a wild bottlenose dolphin was found swimming in a ditch in Cameron, LA. The dolphin had apparently washed ashore in the storm surge from Rita. NOAA Fisheries Service organized a rescue team from the Texas marine mammal stranding network, which was able to successfully reach the dolphin on Wednesday, and release it into the Gulf of Mexico. With help from the Coast Guard the dolphin was hoisted into a stretcher and moved to a nearby beach, where it was released into the Gulf. NOAA Fisheries Service marine mammal biologists reported the dolphin appeared healthy and alert, and the capture and release operation went very well.

-Brian-

The Thursday afternoon map discussion video is on the server:

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

The cold front has come on through. The dewpoint in Muscle Shoals is down to 51, and Birmingham's dewpoint at this time is 64 and dropping.

Most places will be in the 50s by daybreak tomorrow. Not exactly sweater or jacket weather, but it is a start for fall weather fans. Model guidance is up a little... showing mostly upper 50s. Most places should be between 55 and 59, with cooler valleys closer to 50. I fully expect a few spots to dip their toe into the upper 40s.

Nice day tomorrow with ample sunshine and low humidity. The high should be in the low 80s.

Unfortunately this "cool snap" won't last long.

WEEKEND: A slight risk of a shower is in order for Saturday with a short wave passing to the north of the state, but showers should be very isolated if they form. I think Sunday is dry based on the latest model output. Afternoons will be warm, with mid 80s on both days.

NEXT WEEK: The first half of the week should be warm and dry. An approaching cold front should trigger a few showers by Thursday and Friday... not sure that front will have enough southward push to make it all the way through Alabama.

LONG RANGE: The GFS continues to advertise a nice eastern U.S. trough in the October 12-14 time frame; that looks like a good cool-down for much of the deep south. Maybe that one will get us down in the 40s.

TROPICS: No tropical depression in the caribbean yet... read Brian's post below. If something does develop there (and I still think it happens), it seems to be headed for the Yucatan and then on to the Mexican Gulf coast. No problem for the central Gulf coast.

Great audience today at Bluff Park Elementary School... sure enjoyed the visit and the fun time in the lunch room. Have to run to a 3:00 meeting for which I am 7 minutes late!

Here is the latest results from data collected during a Hurricane Hunter flight into the disturbed weather in the northwestern Caribbean Sea.

-Brian-

SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
310 PM EDT THU SEP 29 2005

DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT
INVESTIGATING THE AREA OF DISTURBED WEATHER LOCATED BETWEEN THE
CAYMAN ISLANDS AND HONDURAS INDICATE THAT THE SYSTEM REMAINS
DISORGANIZED AND THAT A TROPICAL DEPRESSION HAS NOT FORMED. A LARGE
AREA OF LIGHT AND VARIABLE WINDS WITH A MINIMUM PRESSURE OF 1009 MB
...OR 29.80 INCHES... WAS DETECTED ABOUT 170 MILES SOUTHWEST OF
GRAND CAYMAN ISLAND. HOWEVER... THERE IS NO THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY
COLLOCATED WITH THE AREA OF LOWEST PRESSURE.

UPPER-LEVEL WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN FAVORABLE ACROSS THE
NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS... AND THERE
IS STILL SOME POTENTIAL FOR THIS SYSTEM TO DEVELOP INTO A TROPICAL
DEPRESSION DURING THAT TIME AS IT MOVES SLOWLY TO THE NORTHWEST OR
WEST-NORTHWEST. ANOTHER AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THE
SYSTEM TOMORROW...IF NECESSARY.

I don't know about you, but I kind of like JB's idea of a cold front warning! But I guess we have so many different weather warnings and alerts nowadays, that we really don't need a new one like that. But it is fun to pretend.

The cold front coming through today is really one of the first good cold fronts of the late summer and early fall time. I'm a relative newcomer to Alabama having only lived here 16+ years, but I've noticed that nature is pretty good about giving us a good cold front in mid to late August or early September as kind of a hint to the fact that Fall is not far away. But we didn't really have one this year. Several weak fronts came into the area and washed out and brought us a bit drier air, but no real good front.

Good front - what does that mean? At this time of year or even for the last month or so, I consider a good front as one that brings dry air and noticably cooler temperatures to central Alabama. In the Wnter and Spring, good cold fronts bring an air mass change with drier, colder air and often these fronts are accompanied by a line of showers or thunderstorms along or just ahead of the boundary between cold-dry air and warm-moist air.

Also, it's important to recognize that a front, whether it be a warm front or a cold front, is not really a thin line as we often see depicted on weather maps. A front is really a transition zone, a boundary, separating two air masses with different characteristics. The front we have today is certainly a good representation of a zone. The wind shift associated with a front is usually along the leading edge of the zone as we see today. I noticed that the wind shifted to the northwest at the Birmingham observation recorded at 7:53 am but there was not a significant dip in the dewpoint reading until 11:53 am. And I suspect we'll see an additional drop in the dewpoint at the 1 pm observation. My readings in Helena have done something similar just offset in time a trifle since I'm south of the Birmingham airport.

So the front marches across Alabama today, and as I look upstream I see lower 39 dewpoints in Missouri. The cool, drier air will be welcome - think I'll try to open up the house tonight and tomorrow - but as is often the case with early season cold fronts, the impact will not last long as temperatures climb back into the 60s for lows and 80s for high over the weekend.

But it really is fun to watch the weather in action like today. Life - and the weather - goes on!

-Brian-

Well, there is no such thing as a Cold Front Warning.

And, I am being a bit silly.

But let us "make up" a Cold Front Warning just for this morning.

Not really cold, but noticeably cooler and much lower humidity.

That's much better than a Tornado Warning or Hurricane Warning!

The front is now very close to Gadsden, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.

Dew Point is 70 in Birmingham, but only 59 in Cullman, 58 in Huntsville and 54 in Muscle Shoals. Translation: It will feel much less humid.

At mid-morning, temperature was only 59 in Nashville and dew point 54

Temperature only 48 in Columbia, Missouri.

Low this morning in Chicago was 43.

Several inches of snow in the high country of Colorado.

Look at this change in Dallas-Fort Worth...
High yesterday was a sweltering 104
High today will only be 77
Low of 58 for tonight

Lows across North half of Alabama will be in the 50s tonight with some 40s in the cooler valleys.

A welcome committie is in order...maybe a parade

Life goes on...and so does the seasons...

UBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...UPDATED FOR PRELIMINARY FINAL NUMBERS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
910 AM CDT WED SEP 28 2005

PRELIMINARY NUMBERS ON THE TOTAL TORNADOES THAT OCCURRED ACROSS THE
COUNTIES SERVED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN BIRMINGHAM
ON SUNDAY...SEPTEMBER 25...THE COUNTIES THAT THEY OCCURRED IN...AND
THE TORANDOES' RATING ON THE FUJITA DAMAGE SCALE (F0 TO F5):

TOTAL TORNADOES...11
TUSCALOOSA COUNTY...8 (2 F1'S AND 6 F0'S)
WINSTON COUNTY...2 (1 F1 AND 1 F0)
SUMTER COUNTY...1 F0

TWO SEPARATE TORNADOES OCCURRED IN WINSTON COUNTY. ONE WAS AN F0 AND
ANOTHER WAS AN F1 ON THE FUJITA DAMAGE SCALE (F0 TO F5).

THE F0 TORNADO TRACKED WAS 1/4 MILE LONG AND 50 YARDS WIDE AT ITS
WIDEST POINT. THIS TORNADO WAS LOCATED ABOUT FOUR MILES SOUTH
SOUTHEAST OF DOUBLE SPRINGS...ONE AND ONE QUARTER OF A MILE EAST OF
THE THE INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 195 AND COUNTY ROAD 8. THE TORNADO
TOUCHDOWN WAS BRIEF...WITH A TOUCHDOWN AT 305 PM CDT...LIFTING BY
306 PM CDT. SEVERAL TREES AND POWER LINES WERE BLOWN DOWN...WITH A
TRAMPOLINE LIFTED INTO A POWER LINE THAT WAS STILL STANDING. MINOR
ROOF DAMAGE TO THE UNION GROVE FREE WILL BAPTIST CHURCH OCCURRED...
ALONG WITH A FEW TREES DOWNED...AND A FLAG POLE BENT IN HALF...
IN WILLIAMS CEMETERY.

THE F1 TORNADO...WHICH LOCATED NEAR THE TOWN OF FAIRVIEW...WAS TWO
AND ONE HALF MILES LONG AND 150 YARDS WIDE AT ITS WIDEST POINT.
THE TORNADO TOUCHDOWN AT 258 PM CDT...AND LIFTED AT 302 PM CDT.
TORNADO CAUSED NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES TO BE DOWNED...
MAKING U.S. HIGHWAY 278 IMPASSIBLE. THIS TORNADO ALSO TORE THE ROOF
OFF A MOBILE HOME...AND DEPOSITED IT SEVERAL HUNDREDS OF FEET TO THE
NORTH. IT ALSO DESTROYED HALF OF A FARM SHED...DEPOSITING SEVERAL
PIECES OF ITS ROOF SEVERAL HUNDRED YARDS TO THE NORTHEAST.

NO FATALITIES OR INJURIES OCCURRED IN WINSTON COUNTY. A TORNADO
WARNING WAS ISSUED FOR WINSTON COUNTY AT 300 PM CDT UNTIL 345 PM
CDT. TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 819 WAS IN EFFECT FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL
ALABAMA FROM 1105 AM CDT TO 700 PM CDT.

AN F0 TORNADO TRACK WAS FOUND IN THE COATOPA COMMUNITY IN EASTERN
SUMTER COUNTY...ABOUT 10 MILES SOUTHEAST OF LIVINGSTON. THE TRACK
WAS ABOUT 2.8 MILES LONG...AND NO MORE THAN 50 YARDS WIDE. THE PATH
BEGAN NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF STATE ROUTE 28 AND COUNTY ROAD
23...AND ENDED NEAR THE EASTERN INTERSECTION OF COUNTY ROAD 23 AND
MUNDY ROAD.

AFTER EXTENSIVE AERIAL AND GROUND SURVEYS ACROSS WESTERN TUSCALOOSA
COUNTY...AT LEAST 8 SEPARATE TORNADO TRACKS WERE DISCOVERED.
PRELIMINARY DATA SUGGEST THAT 2 F1'S AND 6 F0'S OCCURRED. AT THIS
TIME...ONLY TWO INJURIES WERE REPORTED WITH THE TORNADOES IN
TUSCALOOSA COUNTY. ONE MAN REMAINS HOSPITALIZED. BOTH INJURIES
OCCURRED NEAR THE BUHL COMMUNITY. THE TORNADOES ALSO AFFECTED THE
LAKE LURLEEN AREA WHERE SEVERAL FAMILIES FROM LOUISIANA HAVE BEEN
HOUSED. NONE OF THESE TEMPORARY RESIDENCES WERE DAMAGED. A SPECIAL
THANKS GO OUT TO THE TUSCALOOSA POLICE DEPARTMENT FOR PROVIDING THE
AERIAL SURVEY.

EXTENSIVE SURVEYS WERE DONE ACROSS NORTHERN GREENE...FAYETTE...
PICKENS...AND LAMAR COUNTIES...BUT NO OBSERVABLE DAMAGE COULD BE
FOUND IN THESE LOCATIONS.

BY LATER TODAY...PLEASE VISIT THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WEBSITE
AT HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/BMX ...FOR A WEB BASED PRESENTATION
CONCERNING THIS EVENT.

IF ANYONE HAS RECEIVED OR KNOWS ABOUT ANY ADDITIONAL DAMAGE...
PLEASE CALL OUR TOLL FREE NUMBER AT 1-800-856-0758.
$$
BMX STORM SURVEY TEAM

The Thursday morning map discussion video is on the server:

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

As I write this our long awaited cold front is near the northwest corner of Alabama. The band of showers and storms fell apart during the night as expected, and most of the showers ahead of the front are over east Tennessee with nothing on the southern end.

We will still mention isolated showers this morning until the front passes through. For the Birmingham metro, the front should blow through sometime between 10:00 and noon... and then watch the dewpoints drop. As I write this around 5:30 a.m., the dewpoint is 70 in Birmingham, but 45 at Harrison, Arkansas behind the front.

TOMORROW MORNING: Our forecast package has 54, the NAM has 54, and the GFS 55. Pretty decent agreement. This also means the cooler valleys should dip their toes into the upper 40s for the first time since early May.

Tomorrow should be a beautiful day with a sunny sky, very low humidity,and comfortable temperatures.

WEEKEND: Our cool snap won't last long as dewpoints rise again over the weekend and humidity levels come up. A short wave will pass north of the state Saturday, and I guess an isolated shower is not out of the question, but the chance looks so small at this point it really isn't worth mentioning in the forecast. Sunday looks dry, and on both days temperatures should reach the mid 80s.

LONG RANGE: Looks like another cool front comes in here toward the end of next week; not much rain but another shot of cooler air follows the front. And, the GFS is advertising a nice trough over the eastern U.S. in the October 12-14 time frame which might bring the coolest air so far this season.

TROPICS: The wave in the Caribbean is still having a hard time getting its act together. Models still move this system across the Yucatan, and ultimately into the Mexican coast well south of Brownville, TX. I still think this becomes tropical storm Stan along the way, but no issue for the central Gulf coast.

Headed out to see the kids at Bluff Park Elementary School today... will be back in the office for the next map discussion video to be posted by 3:30...