Just another quick note about today's weather situation. Over the past couple of days, showers have moved little thus dropping large amounts of rain in one spot. Movement - or at least what we might call movement - was created by shower propagation. In other words, one shower forms and dies while a new shower develops close to the first one giving the sense of motion but in reality the showers were almost stationary.

Today is different. I've already noted in a blog post below about the movement from northeast to southwest. But today, the showers do seem to have some definite motion to them. And they seem to be moving along at a steady pace though not particularly fast. The net result, though, is that most locations getting showers are not getting extremely heavy rain. The Birmingham WSR-88D storm total precipitation estimates showed around 3 pm that the heaviest rains were on the order of 6 tenths of an inch to one inch - and those heavier spots were mighty small. Most estimates were less than 3 tenths of an inch.

And so far my rain gauge has remained dry. A small shower developed just to my south and southwest but with the movement toward the southwest, all I got was some thunder - nary a drop! Still a long time to sunset so perhaps a boundary from the showers nearby will aide in producing a shower that will give me some rain. I love to sit on the porch and watch/listen to the rain.

-Brian-

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As expected, showers have begun to develop and dot the radar across central Alabama just after 12 noon. What's interesting is the motion of the storms - from northeast toward southwest. This is certainly not the direction of movement you would expect to see from an atmosphere that generally flows from west to east.

Looking at the upper air charts, a small rotation at 500 millibars has formed right over central Alabama. The center of the counter-clockwise rotation seemed to be located around Montgomery, so storms northwest of Birmingham were moving northeast to southwest while storms in east central Alabama along both sides of Interstate 20 were moving westward.

And none of these were barn burners. Most were moving slowly at less than 20 mph or so.

So today is one of those days that you don't want to watch the western sky for the approach of storms, but rather the eastern or northeastern sky.

The weather can be just downright fascinating at times. As JB says, life goes on.

-Brian-

Out early this morning for a full half-mile walk with Little Miss Molly. She had a ball. I really believe she keeps a time-clock on me because recently, with the heat, we have not gone the full distance. Even though the "cool" front never made it to My Tiny Corner, it felt relatively comfortable. There was a feel in the air that was not as oppressive. Maybe it was the rain-cooled air from our 1.51 inches of rain yesterday afternoon. Maybe there is an unknown ingredient in the air besides temperature and dew point that we weather humans haven't discovered yet.

Our walk was fairly uneventual but just as Molly had paused to do her "major business" a low-flying bird came by and Molly took off like the NASA Shuttle. She paused later and finished her business, then I had to backtrack 25 yards and scoop the first.

The Mimosa blossoms are finally beginning to fade along the walking track. They were unusually pretty this year. When my wife's folks from Layton, Utah visited us recently, they wondered if they took a Mimosa sprig home and planted it in the Salt lake Valley, would it grow? They had never seen it. I also suggested a tiny sprig of Kudzu but they immediately declined.

If you are reading this from way up in the NW corner of Alabama, could you tell it was more comfortable this morning? The dew point should have been about 65 as compared to low 70s further south. Places like Waterloo, Wright, Gravelly Springs, Riverton, Murphy's Crossroads and Cherokee. (Yes, the town of Cherokee is in Colbert County, not Cherokee County on the opposite side of the state.) One of these days, I must take that long winding drive (County Road 1) up the east side of Pickwick Lake from Margerum to Riverton. Has to be a beautiful drive. And, I have never been to Waterloo--very high on my wish list.

NOTE: Please scan down to see Brian's morning discussion and an earlier story on summer being 2/3 gone. Always remember that the last story posted on this blog is on top but there are many other stories lower down that are still current. Have had a lot of emails wanting a weekend story about Molly. Some say they need a "Molly fix" seven days a week. I am always afraid that I am "overdoing" the Molly material. Actually, there is a category on this blog called "Miss Molly" It is on the right-side menu. James provided it when he established the blog and I appreciate it. We have now received over 2,500 emails about Molly since beginning "My Tiny Corner" Only one email has been negative although I did get two complaints because I murdered a "pot-gutted" spider with my little blue scoop along the track. Life goes on...

The Saturday map discussion video is on the server at: http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/video.hrb

It is unusual for us to see a cold front reaching northern Alabama in July, but one did that late this week and the effects are still being felt across northwest Alabama. At this writing, dewpoints were in the lower 70s across central Alabama while Tupelo and Muscle Shoals were reporting mid 60s. What a difference a few degrees in those dewpoints can make. The result is that northwest Alabama will be dry today. Showers will be most numerous from the Birmingham area to the south and east.

Tropics are nervous but no signs of any real development at the moment. Franklin still churning through the North Atlantic while there are two disturbances in the South Atlantic. One is over the area of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola and the second is located southeast of the Leeward Islands. Neither are well organized and conditions do not appear favorable for any rapid development. Both will need to be watched as the track forecasts bring them closer to the United States.

Not much change in our weather pattern through the upcoming week. This mornings run of the GFS does bring the promise of another unusual summer cold front approaching the area around August 12, but much can change before we get to that point.

Stay cool and don't work too hard in the afternoon heat. And by all means, be careful when outside as these showers develop. We don't need any more lightning deaths this year!

Have a great weekend and God bless.

-Brian-