From SpaceWeather .com:

A few nights ago, sky watchers in Northern Ireland witnessed a vivid display of electric-blue noctilucent clouds. Also known as "NLCs," these clouds float through the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere at the very edge of space. "Noctilucent clouds are a relatively new phenomenon," says Gary Thomas, a professor at the University of Colorado who studies NLCs. "They were first seen in 1885" about two years after the powerful eruption of Krakatoa hurled plumes of volcanic ash as much as 80 km high in Earth's atmosphere. Ash from the Indonesian volcano caused such splendid sunsets worldwide that evening sky watching became a popular past time. One sky watcher in particular, a German named T.W. Backhouse who is often credited with the discovery of noctilucent clouds, noticed something odd. He stayed outside after the sun had set and, on some nights, saw wispy filaments glowing electric blue against the black sky.

Scientists of the day figured they were some curious manifestation of volcanic ash. Eventually the ash settled and the vivid sunsets of Krakatoa faded. Yet the noctilucent clouds remained. "It's puzzling," says Thomas. "Noctilucent clouds have not only persisted, but also spread." A century ago the clouds were confined to latitudes above 50o; you had to go to places like Scandinavia, Russia and Britain to see them. In recent years they have been sighted as far south as Utah and Colorado.

How ice crystals form in the arid mesosphere is the essential mystery of noctilucent clouds. Ice crystals in clouds need two things to grow: water molecules and something for those molecules to stick to--dust, for example. Water gathering on dust to form droplets or ice crystals is a process called nucleation. It happens all the time in ordinary clouds.

Read the entire article here:

http://www.spaceweather.com/

The Monday afternoon map discussion video is on the server:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

Thanks to Matt Marshall, one of our readers in Utah, for sending this great op-ed piece on "global warming":

http://www.denverpost.com/harsanyi/ci_3899807

I hope Mr. Harsanyi is ready for the onslaught of hate mail coming his way. If you missed it, Dr. William Gray was a guest on our WeatherBrains podcast a couple of weeks ago:

http://www.jamesspann.com/bmachine/post/wxbrains/4557/

Before I am called a fascist... lets move on...

TONIGHT: Cool is the word. And, that word is not used often here in June. We expect temperatures to reach the mid 50s by daybreak tomorrow. I expect at least one of the colder valleys to reach the upper 40s.

TOMORROW: Should be another sunny warm day with highs in the mid 80s.

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY: A disturbance coming down the back side of the eastern U.S. upper trough will bring a chance of scattered showers and storms to Alabama. The 12Z GFS is coming in now a little wetter on Wednesday, and a little drier on Thursday. Some big temperature differences between the GFS and the NAM; for example the GFS is showing a high of 77 on Wednesday, while the NAM brings the high to 85. You have to figure the NAM is a little closer to reality; for now we will mention mostly low 80s on those two days.

FRIDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND: Heights increase, temperatures aloft warm, and the weather looks very uneventful. Lots of sun; highs in the upper 80s, and any afternoon showers or storms very isolated. Most places should be dry.

The upper ridge should hold into early next week.

LONG RANGE: The 12Z run pretty much took out the "cool" solution for mid-month advertised by the 00Z run of the same model. The ridge seems to win the battle, with the main trough over the northeast U.S. So, if this run is the correct run, the weather looks pretty routine through mid-month. The 12Z run is certainly more believable than the 00Z run. Lets take a look at the 00Z run before we make up our mind!

TROPICS: The elongated mass of clouds and showers from the northwest part of the Caribbean, across Cuba, the Bahamas, and into the Atlantic is on the eastern side of the upper trough over the eastern part of the U.S., and surface based tropical storm formation is not likely.

We will be recording a new WeatherBrains episode tonight; it will be ready on iTunes and the web early tomorrow morning... and the next map discussion video will be posted by 7:00 a.m...

In summer, morning lows in the 60s are always welcome. Even in early June, 50s are even more welcome. Here are some lows from this morning that were in the 50s...

52 in Crossville
53 at Desoto State Park
54 at Fort Payne Airport
55 in Pinson and at Cullman Airport (Vinemont)
58 in Anniston and Tuscaloosa
59 in Birmingham, Decatur and Albertville

The Monday morning map discussion video is on the server:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

Thanks to the gang for allowing me a little down time... we run hard in the weather office from January through May, and June always offers a great oppportunity for a little rest. Tornado season is over, and the core of the hurricane season is still to come.

NICE JUNE DAY: Water vapor imagery this morning shows much drier air flowing into North Alabama this morning, and that should set up a very comfortable day for June in Alabama. Lots of sun, low humidity, and highs in the mid 80s. Temperatures will drop quickly tonight, and we should be in the mid 50s early tomorrow morning. You have to wonder if Valley Head can reach the upper 40s... it is sure possible. Tomorrow should be another dry day, but we will watch a disturbance coming at us from the northwest, down the backside of the eastern U.S. upper trough that is in place.

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY: We will mention scattered showers and storms on both days. The GFS is hinting at the best coverage of showers and storms coming on Thursday, but understand models usually don't handle northwest flow storms very well in early summer. Temperatures will remain comfortable, many communities won't get out of the low 80s; not bad at all for June.

By Friday, scattered showers should thin out greatly as an upper air ridge begins to build, and the air aloft gets warmer.

WEEKEND PEEK: For now the weekend looks pretty good as we are looking at routine weather for June. Highs in the upper 80s, a good supply of sun, increasing humidity levels, and only a handful of widely scattered afternoon showers or storms both days. That pattern should hold into early next week.

LONG RANGE: The GFS is hinting at cooler than normal temperatures for Alabama for most of June. In fact, it brings a strong cold front through here around June 14 thanks to a strong upper trough supporting it, and a cool vortex sets up over the eastern U.S. in the June 15-17 time frame. The knee-jerk reaction is to say this is bogus, but I have been out of pocket for a while; lets look at future runs to see if that stays in place. If this happens to be correct, we will have a hard time getting about 90 degrees through June 20. Sounds good to me, but I am not sure I believe it yet.

TROPICS: The elongated cloud mass from Cuba across the Bahamas and into the Atlantic is not surface based, and tropical storm formation seems unlikely for a while. If the GFS is correct with the mean eastern U.S. trough for much of June, anything that forms over the Caribbean should shoot off to the northeast into the open Atlantic. I don't see any tropical troubles for the Gulf for the foreseeable future.

You can see some pictures from my Alabama Gulf coast run here:

http://www.jamesspann.com/bmachine/post/wxtalk/4676/

And, check out some images sent to us from our troops in the Middle East here:

http://www.jamesspann.com/bmachine/post/wxtalk/4679

I posted those at a fairly odd time while I was at the beach.

On the way back yesterday, I drove through a dandy of a thunderstorm over Chilton County yesterday afternoon. Traffic on I-65 was almost at a standstill due to the heavy rain. That was the only rain we saw during the entire trip; not a drop at the beach.

I will have the afternoon map video discussion posted by 3:30 today!