If you want a real holiday treat, let me suggest you spend some time this week down in Demopolis for the annual “Christmas On The River”. Seems like about every river town has developed their own version, but this is the original, started way back in 1972. The celebration has become a week long event, but the big day is Saturday. A big arts and crafts show goes on all day at the square in the center of town; a championship barbeque cook-off takes place at the City Landing, a Children’s Day Parade winds through the streets of the town, there are various kinds of entertainment on stages in the downtown area.

The big event is still the annual nautical parade of floats “that really float” coming down the Tombigbee River, which begins at 6:30 Saturday night. These are animated floats, that in some cases have been developed for many years. As they float down the river, a huge fireworks display lights the sky over the river making for a beautiful scene. My first Christmas On The River was back in 1973, when I was in high school; I went down from Tuscaloosa to volunteer as an amateur radio operator to help coordinate the nautical parade. I have been to many of them over the years and it seems to get bigger and better every year. The most difficult years came when the Tombigbee was in flood, and the floats had to dodge huge logs and a variety of other objects in the river. But, somehow the show has always gone on rain or shine. The good news is that the weather looks excellent for the big day on Saturday, with ample sunshine and temperatures in the 50s during the day.

Demopolis is about 60 miles south of Tuscaloosa; take I-59/20 south from Tuscaloosa, and exit onto U.S. 43 at the Knoxville exit, and follow U.S. 43 into downtown Demopolis!

The morning video update is on the server now:

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

NWS in Birmingham and Huntsville have issued flood watches for today and tonight for areas along and north of I-20. The severe weather threat continues to look minimal... no instability at the surface. So, the storms today will be elevated, and they don't get out of hand too often.

How about that cold air out west... as I write this Alamosa, Colorado is sitting at a slightly chilly 19 degrees below zero! Denver was near zero late last night, but southwest winds have kicked in there and they have warmed all the way up to 12 degrees right now, but the wind chill is -5. Limon, CO is at -12 with a wind chill of -26. Yikes.

No sign of harshly cold air in here for the next seven days, but for you cold weather fans there are some interesting developments at mid-month... watch the video for details!