I received a note from a guy the other day who said he was on a business trip in Phoenix and wanted to let me know some guy out there was using my name on a radio weather report. I replied back that the guy who was using my name was actually me! Most people don’t know this, but our business called The Weather Company has a rather expansive network of over 20 radio affiliates around the nation in states like Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, and of course Alabama. The radio weather part of my day is actually rather time consuming; I usually spend at least three hours a day doing all of these weather forecasts. They are recorded digitally, and loaded to a central server that the various stations use to download their cuts. I have gotten pretty good at finding wi-fi “hot spots” do I can upload the radio files while on the road.

Times have really changed; back when I started doing radio weather in the late 70s it was all done over the telephone. I called the various stations, where the forecast was recorded on old reel to reel tape decks, or cart machines. I wound up doing radio weather cuts at places like phone booths and rest areas; wherever I could find a telephone I could use with some degree of privacy. I even did an entire radio weather feed from Six Flags over Georgia one afternoon!

Today the quality is excellent; most folks think I am at the radio station they are hearing when I do the weather. Most of the cuts are recorded on my laptop in places like the weather office at ABC 33/40, my home, the back of the Storm Chaser van, and hotel rooms when I am out of town. On a normal day, I crank out almost 100 weather cuts for the different stations for various dayparts. The nice thing is that I always look good on the radio!

The Wednesday afternoon video update is ready for viewing:

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

A quick peek shows the cold front about at the northwest corner of Alabama at 2:30 p.m. Temperatures have dropped into the 40s over much of Tennessee.

Much colder air will overspread the state tonight, and we will be close to freezing by daybreak. Tomorrow will be a rather raw day, with strong northwest winds gusting to 25 mph, lingering clouds during the morning, and maybe even morning snow flurries over northeast Alabama. Temperatures will struggle to reach the mid 40s. The northeast corner of the state should hold in the 30s all day.

A significant freeze is ahead for early Friday, and we still expect most places to drop into the 20 to 25 degree range. The colder north Alabama valleys could reach the upper teens.

SUNDAY-MONDAY RAIN: Still looks wet beginning Sunday and into the first part of next week. Some good one to two inch rains are likely. Maybe some thunder, but severe weather looks unlikely at this point.

FEB 16-18: The GFS tries to move an impluse here toward the middle or end of next week, with some cold air not too far to the north. Looks like all rain at this point, but models never handle cold air very well in a split flow. Will be interesting to watch how that unfolds.

See the video for the other good stuff.

Had a great trip to Centre today to see the 5th graders. Always good to have J.B. in the saddle on a day like this while I am on a long road trip like that. Think I might try a little of that good looking cake they gave me!

+ Our low pressure area has now moved quickly NE and was broadly-based over West Virginia and Ohio late this morning.

+ This will now allow some colder air to begin spilling into Alabama...the cold front now over North Mississippi.

+ Most of the rain is now east and south of Birmingham.

+ I believe there is a real good chance for some snow flurries over extreme NE Alabama Thursday morning....especially places like Pisgah. Rainsville, Ider, Mentone, Desoto State Park. May be slow to clear up there also tomorrow.

+ We now have 47 for tomorrow's high in Central Alabama (such as Birmingham) Thinking about lowering that a few degrees in this afternoon's forecast but will take a closer look later...highs over the NE corner of Alabama may be closer to 37-40.

+ Further to the NE, Gatlinburg may see about an inch of snow accumulation late tonight with an additional 1 to 4 inches tomorrow. A snow shower situation...not unlike summer rain showers...so the snow could come down pretty hard briefly.

+ Our expected low of 24 Thursday night looks ok...but will take a closer look at that also in the PM edition....may need to lower a degree or so.

More later...life goes on...

The Wednesday morning web video is on the server:

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

Thanks to the huge crowd that came out to the Storm Alert 2005 show last night in Northport... we ran out of seats and lots of people stood through the entire show. Next week we will be up in Cullman county at Hanceville at Wallace State Community College on Thursday night... February 17.

Here are the coming attractions:

*WET TODAY: A good soaking with another one to two inches of rain likely. This will continue to help reduce the rain deficit. We still need about three to three and a half inches to get back to normal levels for 2005. Maybe a little thunder later today, but no severe weather.

*COLD TOMORROW: Tomorrow will be windy and cold. The guidance continues to show lower temperatures, and I think we will have a hard time reaching the mid 40s. Northeast Alabama could stay in the 30s much of the day, and I would not be shocked to see some morning snow flurries up on Lookout Mountain. We will have a hard freeze Friday morning with most places dropping into the 20 to 25 degree range, with upper teens for the colder valleys. And, a big blizzard cranks up over eastern New England.

*RAIN AGAIN BY SUNDAY: Another good rain events sets up in the Sunday-Monday time frame, with one to two inches likely.

*SPLIT FLOW NEXT WEEK: The European model is advertising much colder air in here by the middle of next week thanks to a deep trough in the northern branch, and the southern branch keeps cranking out the storms. Makes you go HMMMMMMM. I get the idea we will have a difficult forecast period on our hands beyond seven days. See the video for details.

Headed up to Cherokee county today to see the kids at Centre Elemenatry school. Be back in the office by early afternoon for the next update and the blog post...

Fun to read J.B.'s post below this one. I know his story but it was great to read the background of the greatest weather legend in Birmingham!

When I was a small boy growing up in good ole Havana Junction, I already knew what I wanted to be in life. I wanted to be a weatherman, a newspaper reporter, a radio announcer and a photographer. Amazingly, as my career evolved, I got to do all of those things. Actually the “newspaper” part was writing literally thousands of weather stories, statements and warnings while in the National Weather Service and writing such as this today.

My mom bought me a 25-cent thermometer at Woolworth in Tuscaloosa, a 3-cent pencil and a 5-cent composition book. That was all I needed to start keeping weather records. Later I ordered a $4.00 plastic rain gauge through a mail order catalog. By then I was in hog heaven.

I was also lucky to have a science teacher at Martin-Stewart Elementary School and Akron High School that was also interested in weather and he encouraged me greatly. His name was Watson Duncan. Once a week he would throw out the science lesson and have a current events class. My assignment was to report on the weather each week.

I would get up very early, feed the chickens and my pet pig, milk the cow and try to gather enough weather information to draw a crude weather map before I went to school. The way I had to get information is a million light years (backwards) from today.

I would turn on our old battery radio and pick up WWL in New Orleans at 5:00 a.m., jot down their current conditions and then I would tune that old radio around the country picking up such stations as WHO Des Moines, KOMA Oklahoma City, WBAP Fort Worth, KOA Denver, WHAS Lousiville, WBT Charlotte, WBBM, WGN, and WMAQ in Chicago, WOR New York and finally WHAM in Rochester, New York. WHAM had a morning program called The New York Agricultural Radio Network. They would switch around the state of New York giving local conditions and end up with a direct broadcast from the Buffalo Weather Bureau.

If you think I was aweather "geek" way back when, I wasn’t the only one. Did you know that President Harry S. Truman expected a freshly-drawn weather map on his desk in the oval office when he arrived each morning? They were "hand-drawn" maps in those days. No computers to do the work for you. That's what I call good company!