It was a busy Saturday night at the GES Department store near the Alabama State Fairgrounds in the West End section of Birmingham. The store was filled with shoppers about 7 p.m. when a store manager saw a tornado approaching. He yelled for customers to get down seconds before the twister struck the store.

A 57 year old woman was visiting her daughter on First Court West. She watched the tornado from the front door of the house. She was killed when 2x12 timbers launched airborne from a nearby lumber yard was hurled into the house.

Birmingham Deputy Fire Chief Neal Gallant watched the storm as it tore down Lomb Avenue.

The evening feature at the Fair Park Drive Inn was cancelled when the tornado ripped the screen down. No big loss. The feature was “Weird World of LSD.”

Twenty five people were injured along the F2 tornado’s four mile path on this date back in 1967. A total of two homes were destroyed and 60 damaged. Another thirty industrial buildings were damaged. A five block area near the Fairgrounds was hardest hit

I remember my father and grandfather driving us out to see the damage the following day. It seems that I remember some damage to Rickwood Field. Tornadoes petrified me then, and this twister reinforced that fear.

**There will not be an afternoon map discussion video today**

A midday meeting in downtown Birmingham ran long, and I have to scoot out to Ross Bridge for live weather at 5:00 and 6:00 from the Regions Charity Golf Classic. You can still watch the morning video and get a good idea of whats goiing on...

THIS EVENING/TOMORROW: Looks like the rain is pretty much over for the day. The chance of rain tonight and tomorrow is so small is is barely worth mentioning in the forecast. The sun should out at times tomorrow; we will call it a partly sunny day. Highs should be in the mid to upper 70s.

TOMORROW NIGHT: Clouds will thicken, and showers should begin to form as a wave of low pressure develops on the surface front to the south of here.

SUNDAY: Periods of rain are likely Sunday along with a few thunderstorms as the wave passes to the south of us. Severe weather should not be a problem here, any strong to severe storms should be mainly over the southern half of the state. Rainfall amounts Sunday of one-half to one inch look likely here. It won't rain all day, but the rain could come at any time. Take the rain gear if you are headed to the Regions Charity Golf Classic at Ross Bridge.

NEXT WEEK: Mostly dry weather for Monday and Tuesday, but a strong system will bring the chance of strong to severe storms to Alabama by mid-week. The 12Z GFS still suggests the best chance of active storms will come Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

LONG RANGE: The 12Z GFS still is trying to hint that the weekend of May 13-14 will be dry, but that is still out there in voodoo land. We will have much better grasp on that forecast Monday.

Headed out the door now for Ross Bridge... I will also be out there Sunday afternoon from 1:00 until 4:00 at the ABC 33/40 booth; be sure and drop by and say hello. Brian Peters will have the map discussion covered over the weekend!

Scroll down several posts to the morning map discussion by James Spann.

Otherwise, this may be our last update for awhile unless showers and storms increase in number and strength. Here is how it looks late this morning:

* Rather extensive rain and showers from Cullman north to the Tennessee Border and eastward to the Scottsboro-Fort Payne area of NE Alabama. Heaviest showers between Cullman and Guntersville but not real heavy.

* Showers are scattered across East Central down into South Central Alabama. Again little or no lightning with those.

* Showers are very scarce over West Central and NW Alabama. Places like Tuscaloosa, Fayette, Hamilton, Russellville, Florence.

In quick short note form to save you reading time:

Showers widespread over Extreme North Alabama
Especially from North Walker County and Morgan County northward
Also down the east side of Alabama, Guntersville-Gadsden-Anniston
Showers also between Alexander City and Sylacauga
And in West Alabama mainly Hale-Perry-Marengo-Sumter counties
Modest amount of lightning in the thunderstorms
Most of the lightning over the east side of the state
Everything moving eastward
Metro Birmingham getting a break

24 hour rainfall amounts:

0.75 atLogan Martin Dam
0.79 in Clanton
1.27 at Hollins (Clay County)
1.07 at Harris Dam
0.77 in Pell City
1.14 at Steele (North St. Clair County)
1.00 at Sylacauga
1.30 at Hamilton (just since midnight)
0.87 at Greystone Cove (North Shelby--James Spann)

(Scroll down to see a complete discussion from James)

A band of showers, with some thunder, was across East Jefferson and Central Shelby County and moving steadily toward the east. None of this is severe and there is only a modest amount of lightning. Too bad it had to move across for part of the morning rush hour.

The rain has already tapered off from downtown Birmingham westward...although there will be more later this morning. Almost all of the Birmingham Metro should be getting a break by around 8 o'clock.

The showers extend southward into Chilton, Autauga, Lowdnes and Butler counties.

To the north, heavy showers were over North Cullman County and in NW Alabama east of Hamilton and Russellville.

We will post some rainfall amounts later this morning.

Scroll down to see James Spann's morning video/discussion update. Some good news therein.

The Friday morning map discussion video is on the server:

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

Lots of rain on the radar this morning... lets take the weekend one day at a time.

TODAY: Periods of rain and a few thunderstorms will continue this morning. The WRF suggests the rain will end from west to east during the afternoon, and by 6:00 p.m. almost all of the rain should be to the east and south of here. Looks like tonight we will be mostly rain-free. Severe weather is not likely today since the air will remain rather stable thanks to the morning clouds and rain.

TOMORROW: Excellent model agreement now; most of the day should be dry for the northern half of the state. Any showers should be limited to South Alabama, and even there they should be pretty scattered. The sun should peek out at times, and temperatures should reach the mid to upper 70s.

SUNDAY: Rain returns. No all-day rain, but periods of rain are likely as a wave of low pressure forms on the front to the south. We might have a little thunder, but severe weather is not expected since the best instability values will stay to the south. Highs in the low 70s due to the clouds and rain.

MONDAY/TUESDAY: The chance of rain early next week looks relatively small, although a few widely scattered showers could show up by Tuesday afternoon.

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY: A fairly dynamic upper system to the north will swing a surface boundary down this way. The 00Z GFS suggests the best chance of showers and storms from this feature will come Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday night, and early Thursday morning. That might be a little fast; the main action could hold off until Thursday. Strong to severe storms might become an issue with good upper air support and fairly strong wind fields. SPC has all of Alabama in a severe weather risk in their day 4-8 outlook for this event.

FRIDAY/SATURDAY/SUNDAY (May 12-14): The GFS stalls the surface front over South Alabama and keeps rain going down there. It hints at dry conditions for the north-central part of the state on these three days, but with a broad trough forming over the eastern half of the nation (the axis will be a tad west of the state according to the GFS), I am not sure we can stay dry on these three days. Lets get through this weekend and we can give you a much better idea of weather for this period Monday.

I will be out at the Regions Charity Golf Classic this afternoon; I will be going the weather live at 5:00 and 6:00 from the Ross Bridge Resort. I should have time to get the afternoon video posted to the server by 3:30 as usual...

A cluster of strong thunderstorms was over West Central Alabama very early on this Friday morning.

At 12:30 am, the storms were mainly over Bibb and South Tuscaloosa County. A thunderstorm was in progress at Tuscaloosa Airport. The Brent-Centerville-West Blocton areas of Bibb County also getting strong storms.

They are producing very heavy rain and lots of lightning.

Other storms were moving into West Alabama's Pickens County from East Mississippi.

Movement is generally toward the NE or ENE. Don't be surprised to hear thunder in the Birmingham area later this morning.

In some of the North Alabama valleys, dense fog has also developed where temporary clearing occurred. Midnight visibility was only about 1/4 mile in the Trussville area and at Gadsden Airport.