Today in Hurricane History…

…In 1919, the 5th strongest hurricane ever to strike the United States struck South Florida. The lowest pressure (27.37 inches) was recorded at Dry Tortugas, west of Key West. Only the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Camille, Andrew and Katrina were stronger at landfall.

…In 1960…extremely dangerous Hurricane Donna was taking aim on the Florida Keys for the first of her four United States landfalls. Gales began during the evening with the eye sweeping over the Middle Keys around 2:30 am on the 10th with top winds of over 150 mph. The storm would quickly recurve over Florida Bay and strike southwest Florida. Many locations in Florida recorded winds over 100 mph. Donna’s official lowest pressure was 27.46 inches, making it the sixth strongest hurricane ever to hit the United States.

…In 1961…the largest evacuation to date was in progress along the Texas and Louisiana coast as intense Hurricane Carla was taking aim on the Lone Star State. The huge hurricane’s circulation dominated the entire Gulf of Mexico.

…In 1964…Hurricane Dora is the first hurricane of record to strike the extreme northeast part of Florida from the east, ending the myth that the area was immune to hurricanes. Top winds were 125 mph at St. Augustine Florida and Jacksonville recorded the first hurricane force winds in 80 years of record keeping.

…In 1965… One day after striking extreme southern Florida, Hurricane Betsy struck southeastern Louisiana, with the eye crossing Grand Isle just before midnight. Tremendous damage was reported along the coast from the point of landfall east to Mobile, Alabama. Highest sustained winds of 136 mph were recorded at Port Sulphur, LA, with gusts to 160 mph reported along the Gulf Coast. The city of New Orleans was flooded when power to its elaborate flooding pumping stations was knocked out.

Thanks to "Goldwing Dave", one of our blog readers. These images were taken along the Northwest Florida coast:

The Friday afternoon map discussion video is on the web, and available on iTunes:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

Unlike yesterday, there is basically nothing showing up on radar this afternoon across the northern half of Alabama. I guess one or two showers might form over the next couple of hours, but they will be few and far between. The weather looks good for the high school football games tonight with only a small risk of a brief shower for any one stadium. Temperatures will fall from the low 80s into the 70s by the fourth quarter.

THE WEEKEND: Not much change for tomorrow and Sunday. We cannot rule out a brief afternoon shower or storm in a few spots, but many neighborhoods will stay dry with little in the day of dynamic forcing. Highs will be generally in the 86 to 90 degree range.

NEXT WEEK: The 12Z run of the GFS continues the idea of Tuesday being the day next week with the greatest coverage of showers and storms. A cold front moves through early Wednesday, pushing the showers out of the state, and for now the latter half of the week looks dry and pleasant.

TROPICAL: Florence should remain well east of the U.S.... but could threaten the island of Bermuda Monday morning. Still a decent chance the system will be a hurricane by then, but for now it continues to fight dry air in the lower levels and some shear aloft. Top winds remain around 50 mph.

Elsewhere, a decent wave moved off the African coast about 12 hours ago in the far eastern Atlantic, but there is no sign of development. Low pressure waves continue to move from the northeast Gulf of Mexico through North Florida and into the Atlantic, but they are not true tropical systems.

LONG RANGE: The GFS shows a really nice upper trough over much of the eastern U.S. in about two weeks; maybe that will be the one to get parts of Alabama down in the 40s. Watch the video for more...

PRIME TIME: Don't forget to check out our 10th anniversary special Sunday evening from 6:00 until 7:00... ABC 33/40 turned 10 this month and we will look back at all of the stories and weather events we have covered. We will have a "weather only" 10 year special around the end of October.... we are in the process of putting that one together right now.

Brian Peters will have the map discussion videos over the weekend; I will return bright and early Monday morning. Have a great weekend and spend some quality time with your family!

More incredible reader images... these are from Kevin Burns in Decatur, who writes:

I captured these pictures at the beginning of August at Panama City Beach (actually on the beach across from the Laguna Beach Christian Retreat Center).  It was a beautiful sight to see the sun setting in the west and a rainbow in the east.  We were actually at the beach at that moment to baptize a few kids in our youth group in the ocean.  You couldn’t have asked for a better setting. 

The Friday morning map discussion video is on the web, and also available on iTunes:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

A number of people have reported the Windows Media version of the video has been freezing (the video); we changed the compression routine today and that should clear the problem up. We offer the video in three formats: Quicktime, Windows Media, and the iPod format (.m4v). Take your pick! If you use iTunes, you can subscribe to the video and it will download automatically.

WOW: We mentioned the chance of isolated showers yesterday afternoon, but we sure got more than we bargained for. One big storm just sat over downtown Birmingham for an hour or two, dropping 2.21" at our SKYCAM site on 20th Street. Later in the evening a nice shower moved over the ABC 33/40 complex in Riverchase, giving us a nice total of 0.63". Our weather watcher in Alabaster measured 1.11".

TODAY AND THE WEEKEND: The 500 mb flow is a little more westerly (as opposed to the disturbed southwest flow we had yesterday), and we sure don't see much dynamic forcing this weekend for a big rain event. But, there will enough moisture to mention an afternoon shower or storm each day, but they should be widely spaced, and much of the weekend should be dry. Highs in the upper 80s, and higher humidity levels.

NEXT WEEK: Our old pal the GFS is all over the road next week, with every run looking different. This leads to a low confidence forecast. The 00Z run has flipped back to the idea of Tuesday being the day with the best coverage of showers and storms; it then brings dry air in here for Wednesday through Friday.

TROPICS: Tropical Storm Florence, in the middle of the Atlantic, continues to struggle with dry air and some shear, and has not strengthened. NHC has pulled the track a big to the east, and now has it running right over Bermuda as a hurricane Monday of next week. The system will remain well to the east of the U.S. mainland. Kudos to all the global models for handling this storm so well.

The rest of the Atlantic basin is very quiet, just a few weak waves out over the eastern Atlantic. We note the GFS develops another tropical system in about two weeks, but it is also a recurving system in the Atlantic.

TV SPECIAL: Don't forget to tune in to ABC 33/40 Sunday evening at 6:00 for our one hour 10th anniversary special. There will be plenty of weather related stuff on the show as we look back at all of the stories we have covered since we signed on the air September 1, 1996. We are also working on our fall prime time weather special, which will run in late October. This will look back at all of the big weather events we have dealt with in the last 10 years.

STORM ALERT XTREME: We hope to announce the date and time for our annual fall severe weather spotting class... this is a perfect chance for you to learn more about spotting severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, and if you want to join our Skywatcher team, here is your chance for training. Brian Peters coordinates this and I appreciate his work. He is one of the best SKYWARN trainers in the nation, and I am sure glad he is on our team.

SKYWATCHERS: If you want to learn more about being on the ABC 33/40 Skywatcher team, go here:

http://beta.abc3340.com/external.hrb?p=skywatchers&w=1

I will have the afternoon map discussion video up by 3:30 or so today. Enjoy your Friday!