Seems like our severe weather events this fall are the “pre-dawn” variety, which is not exactly our favorite time for a severe weather outbreak. First off, most folks are asleep when tornado warnings are posted at 3:45 a.m., and many people in Alabama still do not have a NOAA Weather Radio receiver in their home. I can’t turn on the TV set, walk down the hall, and wake families up. Having said that, I am rather amazed at the ratings our station generates during the late night/early morning rounds of severe weather. Some folks do indeed stay up or get up early with us.

We started our continuous coverage on ABC 33/40 early yesterday morning around 3:15 a.m. as rotating storms were approaching the Alabama border from the west. The “storm of the morning” intensified over Columbus, Mississippi, and our radar system was showing just about everything associated with a tornado: low level shear locks, a tornado vortex signature, and a strong velocity couplet. But, as we always point out, radar does NOT detect tornadoes because the beam is well off the ground. And, getting spotter reports at 3:45 a.m. in a rural part of the state is almost impossible.

So, we started telling folks in southwest Lamar county to go through their tornado plan, and a few minutes later the NWS in Birmingham issued a formal tornado warning for southern Lamar county. The rotation signatures slowly faded by 4:30 a.m. as the storms moved east, and just scattered tree and power line damage was reported across the rest of the state.

As it turned out, that storm did produce tornado damage over southwest Lamar county in the general area between Millport and Columbus. We will get more details after the NWS does a damage survey later today.

Got a note recently from our friend Tammy Power, the lodge manager at Cheaha State Park, about a great event for kids this Saturday. What a great day to get away from the "hustle and bustle" and enjoy a Saturday atop Alabama's highest mountain:

Breakfast & Santa


Cheaha Mountain State Park wants to invite Kids of all ages to Cheaha Restaurant Saturday December 11, 2004
8am – 9am
For Breakfast & Santa
Enjoy Breakfast Buffet Adults $6.75 per person (tax not included)
Children 8 and under $2.99 (tax not included)
Help decorate our children’s tree; each child bringing an ornament will eat free!
Bring your wish list and place it in Santa’s take home basket
Bring your camera and take photo’s with Santa
Take time to enjoy the holiday season
Cheahastpark.com
1-800-846-2654

I think I might take our seven year old. Sure beats fighting crowds at the malls!

Who needs sleep anyway?

Looks like we do indeed have a tornado track in Lamar county in west Alabama from that very impressive storm that moved through there around 4:00 a.m. If you were watching our long form coverage on ABC 33/40 you saw it as well. No injuries, but a nice damage track. We will get a survey from the NWS later.

Afternoon video is posted for viewing:

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

Sorry for no morning web video today, but it was all emphasis on TV during the severe storms.

We will have to get through one more round of rain and storms late tomorrow night into Thursday, and then we make the change to the winter weather mode beginning next week.

The 12Z GFS has backed off on the idea of a December 16-19 snow or ice threat here, but the prior six runs or so have supported the idea. I still think somebody across the deep south will have the first winter storm threat of the season in that time frame. The 12Z GFS suggests an inverted trof with all rain. But, the pattern looks very cold to me. I think the GFS model output statistics are way too warm for the middle of next week.

We will finally be able to move from the "concept" phase to the forecast phase on this in just a couple of days.

Another big cold punch seems in the offing around December 20-22. Santa might just be right at home this year.

REMEMBER: We do not forecast specific events beyond seven days, so we are NOT forecasting ice or snow now. We are simply looking at trends and patterns that give us a general idea of what will happen. And, the latter half of December looks cold and unsettled.

Sitting in the weather office this morning after another night of little sleep. The storms really have fizzled out in the last hour, and looks like we will escape with no major problems this morning unless something happens within the next hour.

Best tornado signature of the morning came out of Columbus, Mississippi, moving through southern Lamar county. This was about 3:45 until 4:15... I would imagine you can find some significant damage somewhere in those woods; thank goodness it is a sparsely populated part of Alabama.

We have a full house in the weather office... the topic has shifted to the winter storm possibility in the December 16-17 time frame. The 06Z GFS is in, and it still shows up. The consistency is amazing. Remember, this is NO forecast, but an idea based on long range model output. We will begin to call it a forecast around Thursday of this week if the system still shows up.