Bill Murray is a forecaster with The Weather Company, who is a partner with ABC 33/40 and our weather operation. Bill holds down our weekend forecast shift, and you read his material here just about every Saturday and Sunday. Bill was on television here for a number of years back in the 90s on Channel 42, and has loved weather since he was a child. He is a brilliant writer and I always look forward to reading his material. And, if you read his stuff, you know he also loves to travel.

This past spring, Bill journeyed out to the Great Plains for his first tornado chase with his friends Karen and Gene Rhoden on April 30. And, unlike most folks, he saw his first twister on that first chase near Petrolia, Texas. It often takes people years to see a tornado after multiple chases, even with experienced folks along for the ride. Then, on May 29, Bill went back on the chase with Karen and Gene, and what initially looked like a big bust turned out to be a bonanza. Bill and his crew saw and photographed seven tornadoes in the southern part of Kansas.

Bill’s story and the remarkable video and images are part of our Storm Alert 2005 show that continues tonight in Northport. We will be in the Northport Civic Center at 7:00 with a series of incredible Alabama storm stories, including just about everything from Ivan to the pre-Thanksgiving tornado outbreak. You will also get a chance to meet the newest member of our weather team, Jason Simpson. I will be doing the weather on site during our 5:00 and 6:00 newscasts tonight, so you can see how it is done if you want to come early. Everybody gets a t-shirt, and we give away some pretty cool prizes at the end of the show to those who have good weather knowledge. See you in Northport for Storm Alert 2005 tonight!

Our crack investigative reporter, Brian Peters, reports that Ken Graham, the Meteorologist-In-Charge of the Birmingham NWS office, will be leaving and headed to Fort Worth, Texas.

Ken is a great guy and was wonderful to work with during his stay here in Birmingham. We wish him the best!

The Monday afternoon video is ready to view:

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

The song by Chicago from 1975 pretty much sums up my situation... the comeback continues. Hopefully I will be back at full speed tomorrow.

Did you now that Dave Baird and I were rock and roll radio DJs in the 1970s in Tuscaloosa? For many mornings Dave worked mornings, and I worked afternoons at WTBC, the BIG 1230. We were very fortunate to have enjoyed the final years of the top 40 radio days. I also did some part time work here in Birmingham at WSGN, the BIG 610. Guess everything was BIG back then.

Here are some coming attractions:

*SHORT TERM: Rain possible at any time through Wednesday. Still think we have one good round of rain tonight and early tomorrow, and another round of showers and possibly a thunderstorm on Wednesday. GFS and NAM models do not agree at all on the moisture fields in the short term. No severe weather with only marginal dymanics. Maybe a little thunder on Wednesday.

*END OF THIS WEEK: A sharp change to colder for Alabama, and a another blizzard for New England. This correlates with the NAO downward spike that has been advertised for a while. Looks like we have highs in the mid 40s on Thursday, and go into the 20 to 25 degree range early Friday. Teens for the colder valleys of north Alabama.

The trough will be progressive, and we warm up enough for rain from the next system on Sunday.

*MID-MONTH SPLIT FLOW: A real headache for forecasters, and opens the door for quite a number of possibilities. Northern branch brings shallow cold air from time to time, and the southern stream cranks out the storms that originate over the southwest U.S., or Mexico. Anything goes in a split flow in February. Will be fun to watch...

The Monday morining video is on the server:

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

Nothing like a little case of FOOD POISONING to end your week. I went down hard and fast Friday afternoon... I slowly came back up in operation late Saturday. Still not running at 100 percent, but the comeback continues. I hope all those people Saturday night at the Hoover High School Miss Senior 2005 Beauty Walk and my kids at Hunter Street's Children's Worship yesterday will forgive me for the lack of energy. My body took quite a hit on Friday....

On to more pressing issues...

North Atlantic Oscillation negative spike late this week looks like it will set up another blizzard for New England, and a surge of colder air down into the deep south. Some model output shows another serious storm just east of Cape Cod late Thursday and early Friday... just what our friends in New England DON'T need. We get into the colder air Thursday and Friday. I think our highs will only be in the 40s on Thursday, and we get well down in the 20s early Friday, maybe even some teens for the colder valleys of north Alabama.

Beyond that the next issue seems to be a split flow set-up over North America in the February 14-18 time frame. Those are difficult to deal with and they can bring up a variety of possibilities for us. I will be back later today with some ideas on those possibilities.

By the way, don't forget our Storm Alert 2005 show this week is TOMORROW night in Northport at the Northport Civic Center at 7:00. Make plans to being the whole family and join us!