J.B. Elliott and Bill Murray did a great job this past weekend in sharing details of our famous weather events here over the years on April 3 and April 4. I really was not involved in the April 4, 1977 Smithfield tornado in north Birmingham; at the time I was a college student, and working in radio at WTBC, the BIG 1230 in Tuscaloosa (I did not get to Birmingham television until 1979). I was working that day on the air from 3:00 until 7:00 p.m., and recall seeing the bulletins flowing in concerning the Birmingham tornado disaster, but the whole thing was over by the time I got off the air. I do recall going into the Smithfield Estates neighborhood in 1982 and doing a story on the fifth anniversary of the event when I was at Channel 13. You could still clearly pick out the track of the tornado five years later.

I was heavily involved in the 1974 superoutbreak the night of April 3, 1974. I was a senior in high school, and worked that night at the Tuscaloosa County Civil Defense HQ working as net control for the amateur radio spotter network. When it was clear there was serious damage to the north of us, I was sent north to set up my equipment and help establish communication from the hardest hit areas back to relief agencies in Birmingham. My first assignment was the People’s Hospital (the CHS community center in downtown Jasper now sits on that site); I pretty much spent that night at the hospital sending messages to the Red Cross in Birmingham; it was a night I will never forget. Patient after patient was brought into the emergency room, and many of the injuries were quite serious. Jasper was hit hard, but thankfully there were no fatalities in Walker county.

The administrative staff at Tuscaloosa High School let me stay out of school for a few days to help the amateur radio effort across north Alabama, and what I saw is part of the reason I am in this business today. Seems like it happened just yesterday.

The pollen sure has been bugging me today... no wonder; today's count is 11.0 on a scale of zero to 12!

This is just a reminder you can get the pollen count on our web site anytime here:

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

The Monday afternoon web video is on the server:

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

We will focus most of our attention today on the mid-week system. We should be able to squeeze in one more pleasant day tomorrow, with sunshine through high clouds and temperatures not too far from 80 by afternoon.

A deep upper low is forecast to move from northwest Oklahoma tomorrow to northwest Arkansas on Wednesday, with somewhat of a negative tilt trough extending this way. A surface boundary will bring a round of showers and storms Wednesday afternoon or Wednesday evening. Model data suggests a relatively unstable airmass (SBCAPE around 750 here by midday Wednesday) in place with nice shear in the lower 3 km of the atmosphere (helicity around 400). But, the wind fields are somewhat marginal (200 mb winds only 75 kts or so). Like I mentioned this morning, we will wait until tomorrow morning to really get specific. But, for now, it looks like there will be a threat of strong to severe thunderstorms Wednesday from about 2:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. The storms will be arriving at a time when the air will be most unstable.

The latest QPF guidance suggests about one inch of rain here with the storms, and that should not be enough to bring a big flash flood threat.

The upper low will pass slowly over Tennessee on Thursday, so clouds and some light rain are a good bet. Friday should feature gradual clearing, and the weekend ahead looks dry and pleasant.

Based on the 12Z GFS, the systems due in here in about a week (around April 11), and around April 17, don't look like they will bring much of a severe weather threat, but that can change. After all, this is April in Alabama!

The Monday morning web update is on the server:

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

I am not a big fan of Daylight Saving Time... I have written about this many times over the years. Guess the biggest issue is that when my alarm clock goes off at 4:52 a.m... my body knows the time is REALLY 3:52 a.m. And, no human should have to wake up at that hour. I am tired more often during DST... I can't wait until I get that hour back in the fall.

The other big issue is that the computer models run on GMT, so the bottom line is that we get model data one hour LATER during DST, which tends to foul up our forecast cycles a bit.

But.... on to weather issues...

We will enjoy a picture perfect spring day today, with ample sunshine and temperatures well into the 70s. Tomorrow should be a nice day as well, but another storm system will arrive on Wednesday.

All of Alabama is in a slight risk for severe weather on Wednesday. At first glance, it looks like a fairly decent setup, with a deep upper low northwest of the state, with a somewhat negative tilt trough extending to the southeast of the upper air low. Once we get within 48 hours of an event we will have a pretty good idea of the main nature of the threat, so we will be able to tell you much more tomorrow morning.

The upper low doesn't much much on Thursday, so we will maintain the chance of some scattered light rain with cooler temperatures.

The weekend ahead looks very nice with ample sunshine and mild temperatures.

I really don't see anything that poses a major severe weather threat for Alabama in the following 7 days after Wednesday's system, but as we all know that could change in a heartbeat this time of the year.

Looks like a busy week at the Little League ball parks... all of our games were rained out last week, so we try again tonight!

The headline on The Birmingham News the next day proclaimed it Black Monday. The date was Monday, April 4, 1977. I was a freshman at Huffman High School. I was the only person in the student body that was carrying a Weather Radio. My seventh period civics teacher made me turn it off, even as a black cloud was bearing down on us from the southwest. Even as the dismissal bell was ringing, the tornado bell started to sound. We learned on the way home that a tornado had touched down on the western side of Birmingham, and had tossed cars off I-65. As the afternoon wore on, it became apparent that a significant disaster had occurred in the Smithfield Estates area just off highway 78. A total of 22 people died in the F5 tornado that cut a fifteen mile path from just northwest of downtown to near Tarrant around 3 p.m.

About that same time, Southern Airways Flight 242, a DC-9 jet with 82 people on board crash landed on Georgia Highway 381 in the small northwest Georgia community of New Hope. A total of 63 passengers and crew members died, along with 9 people on the ground as the plane skidded along the highway. The aircraft, enroute from Huntsville to Atlanta, ran into a severe thunderstorm near Rome, Georgia at about 17,000 feet. Power was lost in both engines after tremendous amounts of hail and rain were ingested into the engines. The engines could not be restarted after being severely damaged and the crew had to attempt an emergency landing on the highway. The NTSB concluded that the loss of thrust caused the crash. They also considered that several technological issues contributed to the disaster. Southern Airways flight dispatchers did not alert the crew to the presence of the severe weather. The Air Traffic Control system was not equipped to provided real-time information to the flight crew about the hazardous weather. Finally, the Captain relied on the aircraft’s radar to make his penetration of the thunderstorm.