Time To Hit The Sack

April 8, 2006, 3:26 am
Posted by J.B. Elliott in Severe Weather
Rating: 0/5   Votes : 0
After 25 hours with no sleep, it is time to hit the sack

At 4:25 am, the main thunderstorms remaining over Alabama were clustered over about 5 counties in the center of the state.

Still producing heavy amounts of rain. Slowly diminishing as they move slowly east and southeast,

And much, much lightning.

Awesome lightning. How you ever seen a prettier display?
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Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 6:50 am
JB, James, John, Jason and Bill, I hope none of you read this before 12 noon.... you all deserve a good nap.
Thanks for the hard work.

James, at 2something a.m. when Jeff Co went under the warning, I turned the TV on, and I mean nothing bad by this, but you looked really tired - - this is the first time I have seen you look like that in all your years of doing TV weather.

Wishes of peaceful slumber for all of you.

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Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 6:51 am
Oops.. I knew I would forget one.... Brian, those wishes go for you too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Posted by   www
on April 8, 2006, 6:57 am
He did look tired. Poor man. I doubt he got a nap yesterday prior to the event. He deserves to sleep all day - all of them do!! thanks for all you do 33/40 guys!

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Posted by bebes  
on April 8, 2006, 7:30 am
Once again, unbelievable job. My hat is off to all of you. Thanks again.

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Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 7:39 am
I agree James and the crew did a super job I was up untill James went to normal programing and that was at 3 A.M.

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Posted by chloe  
on April 8, 2006, 7:48 am
I have a question for someone, please. About 1:25 a.m. when the storm went over Vestavia, my house became filled with what smelled like stale air--to the extent that for several minutes it was difficult to breathe. IF a tornado was in the air, but very close to my house, would the action of the tornado pull air from the basement, attic, etc., into the living area?

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Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 8:18 am
Chloe,
Im no expert by any means of the word, but Im sure it could be possible that the winds may have gone through the attic vents and forced air through any openings...i.e. Bathroom vents, attic van louvers etc. Just a guess.

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Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 8:59 am
Just adding my voice of thanks... I hate to think of how many injuries and accidents there would have been last night on the roads if you hadn't been on the ball and making people pay attention.

Thank you for your thankless job... because I know that when you do your job perfectly and no one is hurt, they like to scream about how you were overreacting the whole time. Just don't forget that some of us know the truth... you helped us all beat the odds by being informed. That's terribly important.

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Posted by John T.  
on April 8, 2006, 9:00 am
YES , Absolutely a teriffic job in covering this whole event . I also was up yaw until about 2:30 to 2:45 when ever the power went off and the atmosphere became stable . 25 hours with no sleep & what , 8 , 9 hours of wall-to-wall coverage . 3340 all of you are simply amazing .

We ALL deserve some descent rest now . And my fellow bloggers , since our experts were sooo busy with other important jobs, I think you all did a marvelous job keeping the information good and up-to-date here . I know & understand JB , Bill & James did all they could on here , without taking away from their main job . Now for the next system , I'm pumped and into the severe storm "thing" now .

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Posted by   www
on April 8, 2006, 9:15 am
I ended up going to bed after 0230... My eyes were too heavy from staring at the computer, so I said I'll just listen, but I ended up falling asleep. I slept three hours, got up and checked for further reports for my area... went to sleep again and woke up around 0900. SPC posted a Tornado Watch, but I don't see it being anything close to yesterday's outbreak.

Hats off once again to 33/40... the next best thing to a 2 meter rig and a severe weather net. Glad to see the live stream up and kicking...

73 de WX4TCL Pensacola.

God Bless,
Phil

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Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 9:29 am
I just want too give the whole ABC 33/40 weather team a pat on the back, i'm very grateful for the wall too wall coverage,you guys give us,it very calming watching you guys,when bad weather comes through the state...My hats off too the Storm Prediction Center as well,the atmosphere was ripe for bad weather,and the Storm Prediction Center gave us fair warning too get prepared for it...Any one of those storms last night,could've dropped an F4 or F5,at any time last night...A job well done...

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Posted by   www
on April 8, 2006, 9:47 am
Hats off to all for a great job! I went to bed around 11:30 with DP rising slightly and thought we'd only get some thunder,etc. Then the siren here went off and continued for quite some time. Was able to get my Aunt and get to the shelter before the first rain drops fell. Pinpointed the areas to a T guys, thanks! We weren't close to any bad stuff but it made my aunt feel better to take shelter.
Anyway, my only concern is that the timing was off which couldn't be helped, ( we're dealing with a natural force that man cannot control) that possibly folks will not pay much heed next time..ie schools, business closing etc. Just a thought.
Sweet dreams guys!


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Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 10:45 am
Unbelievable job last night guys. I can't imagine that anyone would have anything negative to say after what happened in Tennessee. Luckily, it was not quite as bad here as it could have been. Thanks for all that you do and get some rest!

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Posted by John T.  
on April 8, 2006, 10:47 am
As for as timing James absolutely nailed that . That was simply the school systems decision . Which is good to a point , I guess for safety precautions , but James said the whole time that it would be late afternoon before it got into AL. and the evening and over-night hours for us . If I'm not mistaken we also had a capping that held back some of the afternoon major supercell formation for Central AL . & I'm guessing that is why the schools went on ahead and released early , just in case the cap gave away .

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Posted by John T.  
on April 8, 2006, 10:58 am
In responce to what JB has stated about the high risk bust or not on the 7 day discussion , I say not . Again , I believe that the lower dew points ( upper 50s & low 60s ) saved our butts . If they had gotten to upper 60s to 70 or above like I believe they did 8 years ago , we would have had a repeat of that . How critical that one ingredient can be .

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Posted by Susan  
on April 8, 2006, 11:17 am
Great job, guys!!
Now a change of subject - my sister lives just off highway 11 in roebuck, biscayne highlands area. I just got off the cell phone with her - she has no land line phone service or electricity, many trees down or sheared off, and a lot of damage, some structural, all along her street. Has anyone heard anything about this? Did they maybe have a small tornado touchdown there?

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Posted by John T.  
on April 8, 2006, 11:53 am
Susan , I'm in Hueytown and we had the same in this city . Straight line wind damage is my thinking . I had a sustained wind in the 20s for about 15 minutes or so with higher gusts in the 30 - 50 mph bracket at times . The last I remember James reporting was a sustained wind of 57 at the new skycam site on Hwy 280 on the top of the hotel in Invernass . Basicly that is severe of course . It was somewhat widespread damage you could say as far as trees , power poles and lines , etc. all the basic damage I guess you could say . So it should be no surprise that she had damage also .

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Posted by Susan  
on April 8, 2006, 12:17 pm
Thanks, John T! But is your power still out like hers is? And no phone service? This sounds to me like something a little more severe may have happened. It seems to be isolated to just her immediate area...

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Posted by John T.  
on April 8, 2006, 12:34 pm
No mam , my neighborhood power was restored earlier this a.m. . However there is still some outages throughout the area though . There could have well been an F0 come over , it would not surprise me . But you also have to remember what James says about straight line wind damage though & thats how the damage looks around here . Everything blown moreless in one direction . But thats around here .

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Posted by Susan  
on April 8, 2006, 12:46 pm
Thanks once again, John T. I am just wondering, does anyone have any numbers on people still without power in the Birmingham metro area? Or without phone service, which seems even more rare?

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