Well, well. As we get up this morning, we discover it is October 1. We are cruising right along into the nicest part of the year. Unfortunately, October is also traditionally the driest month of the year in Alabama.

I will always remember early October because of Hurricane Opal. Eleven years ago today Hurricane Opal was growing stronger and by early on October 4 she had intensified rapidly to a category 4 in the Gulf of Mexico.

I remember very well working in the weather office at WBRC-TV with James (that is where he was chief meteorologist at the time). I was doing complete updates every 30 minutes on several local radio stations and we worked most of the night.

After midnight, it got so windy and stormy that some trees started coming down.

Opal made landfall about 6:00 p.m. on October 4, 1995 near Navarre Beach in NW Florida. After moving inland, she curved toward the NNE passing all the way through South-Central and East Alabama. The center passed just west of Montgomery, then to near Talladega and eventually to near Ft. Payne in the NE corner of the state.

At the worst, 2.6 million people in Alabama were without power—some for over a week. Alabama Power reported the most widespread outages in their history up until that time. 1,400 utility poles were brought down and 400 miles of power lines.

2,500 Alabama power linemen teamed up with 2,500 from out of state and worked like Trojans. They did their usual great job but the task was enormous.

Excellent weather for the game which starts at 3:30 EDT, or 2:30 Alabama time.

Present weather in Gainesville (2PM EDT)...Sunny with temperature 84 and light winds. The dew point was 57 which means the humidity was a whole lot more pleasant than it could be at this time.

Nearest showers were off in the Atlantic and others south of Miami. No threat of rain for the game.

In Baton Rouge, some strong to possibly severe thunderstorms were approaching from the west and a lightning delay for the LSU-Mississippi State game. In fact, a Severe Thundersrtorm Warning for the area for possible large hail and wind gusts over 60 mph.

The Saturday map discussion video is on the web, and available on iTunes:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

Remember, we post the map discussion video in both WMV and MOV formats (Windows and Quicktime), so you have your choice for viewing.

Can you ask for any better weather than this? This morning is one of the coolest days we've seen in Central Alabama since last April. Feels great out there with low humidity and briskly cool air. Every time of the year has some great weather, but Fall has got to be one of the best as we make that transition toward winter.

Can you spell high pressure? That looks like the main feature that will be in our weather pattern through the upcoming week as we end September and begin October. October is the driest month of the year in Central Alabama, so that nice rain we had about a week ago was a real blessing that will serve well as we head for generally dry conditions.

There are a few clouds this morning across North Alabama but these appear to be mid and high clouds so no rain today. The GFS is forecasting a bit of moisture to cross the area tomorrow but without much of a mechanism to get some upward forcing, I doubt that we'll see more than an isolated shower at best.

The latest GFS model run suggests high pressure right through the upcoming week. An upper ridge will move over our area taking up back into some warm weather once again. In fact, afternoon highs may reach the upper 80s again, but morning lows will stay generally in the 60s. With cool mornings to start each day the afternoon highs don't see quite so bad.

Even the long range model guidance keeps a big ridge over our area so there is not much weather action for us if the models are right at least through the first couple of weeks of October.

I'm filling in for John Oldshue on television this weekend, so I hope you'll have a chance to tune in. Got to be down at the Women's Show on Sunday before my weather shift, so hope you'll have a chance to join us there. Still reveling from the wonderful Alabama Symphony Orchestra performance last night with some wonderful music.

I hope you each have a great weekend. God bless.

-Brian-