FYI... We found the 2006 "best of the fest" winner at the National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores... we have a close up of the booth on the SKYCAM now...

http://www.abc3340.com/static/skycams/skycamsgulfshores.html

These cameras are too cool!

A severe thunderstorm containing a possible tornado is 10 miles SW of Heflin. It is moving ENE into southern Cleburne County.

The tornado warning is until 5:15 for southwestern Cleburne County and extreme Northeast Clay County.

Take cover as this dangerous storm approaches...

The warning for Talladega County has been cancellled...

A significant weather alert is now in effect for Cleburne County...

The storm is 10 miles south of Anniston, moving into southern Cleburne County. It will move parallel to and just south of US-78.

Other fairly strong storms are over extreme eastern Calhoun County and northern Cleburne County. The strongest part of the storms is south of Piedmont. They are also moving east or east northeast at 30 mph.

These storms are capable of large hail, damaging winds and deadly lightning.

A severe thunderstorm warning is now in effect for Talladega County...until 445 pm CDT...

A severe thunderstorm is indicated by radar near Curry in Talldega County...or 10 miles NE of Talladega...it is moving ENE at 30 mph...

It will affect northern Talladega and move into southern Cleburne County. It will stay south of the Oxford area.

Large hail, damaging winds and dangerous lightning are possible with this storm...

Other storms are north of Anniston in Calhoun County....near Altoona and in SE CHilton COunty moving into Coosa County.

Thunderstorms are scattered across Northeast East down through Central Alabama...

The severe thunderstorm warning for Marshall/DeKalb Counties expired at 3:30 p.m.

The storms are along and ahead of a frontal boundary that extends from Meridian to near Birmingham to near Gadsden and then into Northwest Georgia.

Some of the more notable storms are...
...near Valley Head...
...just northeast of Sand Rock in Cherokee County...
...from just west of Ohatchee to near Odenville in St. Clair County...
...from north of Vincent over to near Talladega...
...across SE Bibb back into Perry County...
...sitting on I-65 on the Autauga/Chilton County line...

They are moving east or northeast at 30 mph...

Isolated severe storms may develop. A severe weather watch is not anticipated at this time. The stronger storms are capable of producing nickel sized hail, heavy rain, deadly lightning and strong gusty winds...

We interrupt our fabulous stream of fall pictures and sunsets (aren't they super to give you a weather bulletin....

A potentially severe thunderstorm is 10 miles WSW of Collinsville...in DeKalb County.

It is moving ENE at 30 mph toward Collinsville and Crossville.

It is capable of producing nickel sized hail.

Showers and storms are intensifying over Northeast Alabama, generally from just west of I-59 over to the Georgia border.

In the Birmingham area, storms are growing from west of Argo in Northeast Jefferson County to near Odenville in St. Clair County. Another one is along Highway 280 between 459 and Chelsea.

Additional showers and storms will continue to develop this afternoon generally along and east of I-59...

We will have frequent updates throughout the afternoon...

It will be fun watching the ABC 33/40 Gulf Shores SKYCAM in coming days... the 35th annual National Shrimp Festival is coming up this weekend on the Alabama Gulf Coast, and with our camera on top of the Phoenix All-Suites Motel, adjacent to the Gulf Shores public beach, we will have some great images of the festival. Here is more info on the event:

The Annual National Shrimp Festival is one of the nation's premier outdoor festivals featuring over 300 vendors that offer fine art, arts and crafts, an international marketplace and of course, shrimp! Fried, grilled, broiled or steamed, you can find it all at the Festival along with other delicious seafood and non-seafood dishes.

Celebrating its 35th year in 2006, the Festival attracts over 200,000 people who come to view fine art and crafts from over 200 artists during the 4 day festival. 3 stages offer continuous musical entertainment and the Children's Art Village captures the little ones interest with games, crafts and interactive activities that lets them create their own "art".

The Annual National Shrimp Festival was recently named one of the top twenty events in the southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society and was named one of the top 5 tourist attractions in the state of Alabama. You don't want to miss it! The Festival is produced by the Alabama Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce with the help of dedicated volunteers. Get more details on their web site:

http://www.nationalshrimpfestival.com/

You can see images from our SKYCAM network (updated every 60 seconds from each site), and weather conditions here:

http://www.abc3340.com/static/skycams/skycamsmain.html

We now have 10 cameras up and running across the state, from Cullman to Gulf Shores, and yet another site should be coming on line within the next week or two. Our main partner in the project is Compass Bank, and we thank them for making it happen!

Legend has it that the fire was caused by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. The official investigation by the Chicago Fire Department concluded that the Great Chicago Fire did begin in the barn of Mr. Patrick O’Leary on the South Side. Whether or not it was Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, the Great Chicago Fire was a terrible disaster. It occurred on this date in 1871.

A terrible summer drought had left much of the Midwest, including the city of Chicago as dry as a tinderbox. Many areas of the city were very congested with narrow streets of wood frame buildings. The fire started just after 9 p.m. and spread rapidly northward, driven by a strong southwesterly wind. The fire split into separate tongues of flame, consuming everything in its path. The flames jumped the Chicago River around midnight.

The fire knocked the city’s water works out of commission and then there was nothing to stop it. 17,500 buildings wee destroyed in the flames. 2100 acres were burned. 250 people were killed and 100,000 were left homeless in the city of about 334,000 residents.

The fired raged out of control all day on Monday, October 9, finally being extinguished by the combination of a light rain and the natural obstacle of Lake Michigan. Some feel that the fire was a blessing in disguise, that it wiped away the cheaply constructed wood frame buildings and allowed Chicago to be built back better prepared for the future. Damage totaled $196 million.

Weather should be perfect for viewing. Here is the information from spaceweather.com
-----------------------------
Space Weather News for Oct. 6, 2006
http://spaceweather.com

HARVEST MOON: Tonight's full moon has a special name--the "Harvest Moon." It is the full moon closest to the northern autumnal equinox. Long ago, before electric lights, farmers relied on the Harvest Moon to light up their fields at night, allowing them to harvest autumn crops even after sunset.

The Harvest Moon of 2006 is a big one--almost 12% wider than some full Moons we've seen earlier this year. Why? Because the Moon is near perigee, the side of the Moon's lopsided orbit that comes closest to Earth.

When the Harvest Moon rises tonight, go outside and look around. You might see some strange things: full story at http://spaceweather.com .

The Harvest Moon of 2006 rises on October 6th, and if you pay attention, you may notice a few puzzling things:

1. Moonlight steals color from whatever it touches. Regard a rose. In full moonlight, the flower is brightly lit and even casts a shadow, but the red is gone, replaced by shades of gray. In fact, the whole landscape is that way. It's a bit like seeing the world through an old black and white TV set.

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

http://www.jamesspann.com/

Not quite as cool as forecast this morning; we expected to be in the upper 50s now, but most spots are in the low to mid 60s. Still, today will be much cooler across Alabama with nice cool air advection and highs in the 70 to 75 degree range, about 15 degrees cooler than yesterday.

The hard part of this forecast is the cloud cover. As expected, clouds cover much of North Alabama this morning, and we will still forecast clearing from west to east this morning. But, we all know clouds can be stubborn after a frontal passage this time of the year, and some East Alabama communities could be cloudy much of the day. One way or another,we won't expect any rain today, and everyone should be clear by tonight.

THE WEEKEND: A vigorous upper air system will drop southward from the mid-Atlantic coast down to near Jacksonville. This will produce lots of rain and gusty winds on the Atlantic coast; flash flood watches are up for parts of the Virginia coast already. For now it looks like this thing will stay far enough east of here to allow a beautiful weekend for Alabama, with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. There will probably be a few cumulus clouds over East Alabama, but no rain. A fine weekend for football and for the races at Talladega.

NEXT WEEK: We will be rain-free for the first half of the week, but the end of the week looks interesting with a major upper trough developing over the central U.S. This will bring the coldest air so far this season down into the U.S., and ahead of that cold front we will expect showers and thunderstorms Thursday afternoon into Friday. This could be a pretty good rain setup for Alabama, with amounts of over one inch quite possible. Then, we should expect the coolest air so far this season by the following weekend (October 14-15). That might get us down in the 30s.

TROPICS: Once again not much to discuss; the disturbed areas in the southwest Gulf, and in the Atlantic northeast of the Bahamas show no signs of organization, and environmental conditions don't seem to favor tropical storm formation. Our system on the Atlantic coast might acquire tropical characteristics next week as it moves into the open Atlantic.

STORM ALERT XTREME: Be sure and make plans for our annual severe storm training day called Storm Alert XTREME... we ask all of our Skywatchers to join us, and anyone that loves weather will get something out of this. Learn more here:

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

I am headed over to Greystone Elementary this morning; I will have the afternoon map discussion video up by 3:30 this afternoon. Enjoy your Friday!