The Day After!

April 8, 2006, 11:23 am
Posted by Brian Peters in Weather Discussions
Rating: 0/5   Votes : 0
The Saturday video map discussion is on the server at:

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

After not getting home until 4 am this morning, I'm finally up and percolating though I'm not sure I'm really clicking on all cylinders yet! Wow, what a day yesterday was. One of my burning questions is know why the severe weather took so long to get into and through Central Alabama. One of the first supercells to develop began in Arkansas and moved northeast just south of Memphis dropping large hail (half dollar size) around 10 am. That cell along with several others produced extensive damage in Middle Tennessee especially in the Gallatin area. News reports this morning still indicate 11 deaths in Tennessee. Tennessee has been very hard hit with two signicant tornado outbreaks in less than a week. But the severe thunderstorms inched eastward until around 11 pm when eastward movement became more evident. The event became primarily a rain event after 3 am.

The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) severe storm log showed 691 severe weather reports from 7 am Friday to 7 am Saturday including 48 tornado reports. The number of actual tornadoes will probably be less than that since some of the reports were about the same tornado from different locations. It would appear at this point that 2006 may be headed for some high numbers in both tornado occurrences and tornado deaths. I can hardly wait until some idiot suggests that those numbers are caused by global warming!

A small band of showers was moving through Central Alabama at this writing, but that should be the last of the rain for the weekend. In fact, for the upcoming week I expect to see mostly dry conditions with only a slim chance of rain on Wednesday.

High pressure settles in across the Southeast US tonight and Sunday. With it, we'll see some fine Spring days over the upcoming week with cool mornings (lows in the 40s and 50s) and mild afternoons (highs in the 70s). The high stays with us as the big high is pinched with a center over New Orleans by Thursday. This keeps the Gulf shut down so much of the upcoming week will see great weather.

No long range looks today. Hope you and your families have a great weekend. I'm grateful that we are not counting deaths in Alabama today. We were certainly fortunate that the events in Alabama did not unfold like they did in Tennessee with the positive environment we had yesterday and last night.

-Brian-

Mail this   Printer friendly   
Posted by John T.  
on April 8, 2006, 11:58 am
Brian that was my "million dollar ? " also ... the waiting drives me crazy . I guess thats mother natures since of humor in some way . Or just simply showing us who is boss still .

Reply to this comment
Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 12:09 pm
hi, brian ,just reading your discussion ,couldn't help notice some people might say this event was a bust , I know you guys feel the same way I do, that many people and their familys who lost their lives would strongly disagree , but anyway thats the way some people are I guess , but as usual you all did an excellent , job of keeping us all in formed , thank you , and all the staff from, camera men to reporters till next event , artie , ashville , alabama............

Reply to this comment
Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 12:52 pm
Numbers of deaths are not factored in on a risk area. Although the situation was tragic for some, it was a bust vs. what a high risk criteria is. My condolences go out for everyone that this storm affected, but nobody can argue that this was not a bust. Now, on the other hand, I'm glad it busted, b/c it could have really been a bad day across the SE. We were lucky to come away like we did.

Reply to this comment
Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 12:49 pm
what a LONG night... went to bed at 3AM, got up at 6:30AM to take the ACT (which was HARD) It got scary last night where I live in Hueytown. Very VERY ominous sound to the north and saw the power go out up there too. Tree limbs everywhere... but we have nothing to complain about, compared to Tennessee...

-jared

Reply to this comment
Posted by Mikey  
on April 8, 2006, 12:52 pm
Why would anyone say it was a bust? I got to leave work early, schools let out early, it rained hard at my house, the wind blew...sounds like bad thunderstorms with straight-line winds to me here in Birmingham rather than tornadic activity.

Plus, we got to watch and listen to James and Mini-James.

Reply to this comment
Posted by  
on April 8, 2006, 2:02 pm
The event was not a bust, if you live or have loved ones in middle Tennessee. However, I fear that some in central Alabama will chalk this one up to "the boy who cried wolf" and will not heed the warning should the same situation happen later this spring.

Reply to this comment
Posted by John T.  
on April 8, 2006, 6:10 pm
This was no where near a "bust" . Some folks I guess just don't see too well .

Reply to this comment