The shots below were taken by a tugboat crew pushing a barge north, up the Tombigee River. They shots are in chronological order; the first ones are a sunrise over the Mobile Delta. You can see the I-65 bridge over the Delta. The tug passes under a railroad bridge in Jackson, and the most recent shots are from Demopolis. You can see the barge going through the Demopolis Lock and Dam, followed by a shot of the Demopolis Civic Center, where our SKYCAM is located. Then, a great sunset follows. We had this crew live on the SKYCAM on our 5:00 news yesterday afternoon.

More shots have been added from the crew as they are now in the Tuscaloosa area… you can see the I-20/59 Warrior River bridge in the latest shots…

One of these days, a group of us are going to try and go all the way from Birminghamport to Gulf Shores via this same waterway. Sure looks peaceful out there…

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PLEASANT SUMMER DAY: Temperatures are below forecast levels across North Alabama this afternoon, and nobody is complaining. Birmingham is at 90 degrees at 2:00, with a dewpoint of 58 and a humidity of only 33 percent. A fresh westerly breeze is also helping.

Our weather will stay dry tomorrow, and Saturday still looks mostly rain-free at this point, although we will have to watch for any MCS that forms northwest of the state; that could drop down in here Saturday night. But, for now things are looking pretty good for the fireworks shows across the state Saturday night.

SUNDAY AND MONDAY: We should see a good increase in the number of showers and thunderstorms on these days as moist air flows northward and a surface front approaches from the north. Highs will drop down into the mid to upper 80s on these days, and we have the potential for at least one-half to one inch of rain. The heaviest rain will be over North Alabama, with amounts tapering off as you head south.

The GFS continues to show drier air creeping into North Alabama Tuesday and Wednesday; so many of the showers and storms on these days could very well be south of I-20.

TROPICAL AND BEACH WEATHER: Only a small risk of a thunderstorm tomorrow along the Alabama/NW Florida coast and some widely scattered ones for the July 4 holiday. A slightly better chance on Sunday, but the better chance of all will be on Monday. High temperatures between 90 and 95. A survey of sea surface temperatures show very warm water along the coast with water temperatures in the mid to upper 80s. We even saw a water temperature of 92 off Waveland, Mississippi. Tropical storms and hurricanes feast on water that warm, but there are no signs of any development.

FOLLOW ALONG: Connect with us on the social networks! Here is your invitation to follow me on Twitter, and on Facebook. You can also get all Alabama warnings on Twitter via E-Warn.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left.

Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow…

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below. You can subscribe to the Weather Xtreme video on iTunes by clicking here.

DRY AIR IN PLACE: A relatively dry airmass for mid-summer continues to cover Alabama this morning, and accordingly we expect no rain today with a high in the low 90s; mid 90s for West Alabama. The humidity will remain fairly low for early July. Pretty much the same story for tomorrow; the chance of rain looks so small we will leave it out of the forecast and roll with a mostly sunny forecast.

FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND: Global models continue to trend dry on Saturday, and for now we have mentioned only isolated afternoon showers. Sure looks like most of the state will stay dry, and the weather is looking generally good for fireworks displays Saturday night.

We will continue to mention scattered showers and storms Sunday as heights lower a bit and moisture levels increase. Showers and storms will be more numerous Monday with a nice short wave and surface front involved by then. The GFS is continuing the idea of highs only in the upper 80s on Sunday and Monday because of clouds and showers. We could use the rain since our rain surplus for 2009 has just about vanished in recent weeks.

LONG RANGE/TROPICS: Watch the Weather Xtreme video for details; no sign of any super serious heat wave through mid-July; looks like the typical July heat around here. And, no sign of life in the tropics for now.

AT THE BEACH: You can bet the beaches will be packed in coming days as we approach the Fourth of July weekend. The weather looks pretty decent; expect about 7 to 9 hours of sunshine each day through Sunday with just a few scattered showers and storms. Afternoon highs along the immediate coast will be close to 90, with mid 90s a few miles inland. The sea water temperature at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab last night was 87 degrees, and there is no sign of any tropical storm formation through the weekend.

FOLLOW ALONG: Connect with us on the social networks! Here is your invitation to follow me on Twitter, and on Facebook. You can also get all Alabama warnings on Twitter via E-Warn.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left.

I will be in Tuscaloosa this morning for a weather program at Morning Pointe (senior adults)… I will be back by early afternoon and the next Weather Xtreme video will be posted by 3:30. Enjoy the day!

Thanks to Shirl Ganey of Brilliant for these images… she writes:

“This is a picture I took Sunday (June 28) night of a sunset at Brilliant, Al. I think the sunset was so colorful from the volcanic eruption they had in Russia on June 12th which put sulfate aerosol into the atmosphere. ”

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below. You can subscribe to the Weather Xtreme video on iTunes by clicking here.

RIGHT NOW: Nothing on the radar, despite a weak surface boundary dropping south through Central Alabama. We will stay dry tomorrow, and even Friday is looking generally rain-free at this time. We will still have to watch developments over Missouri and Arkansas Friday afternoon; those storms could roll down into our state Friday night.

FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND: The 12Z GFS is trending drier on Saturday; we will probably begin to lean in that direction in our forecast as well. But, scattered showers and storms will be around on Sunday, and into the first half of next week as moist air settles into the state, and a front approaches and stalls out over Tennessee. Hopefully we will pick up some decent showers since the top soil is getting pretty dry around here. We will need to raise the high for Saturday up into the low 90s with more sunshine than originally expected, but upper 80s are being printed by the GFS for Sunday and Monday.

VOODOO LAND: You can watch the Weather Xtreme video for the long range model output; bottom line is that the 5940 meter contour is now off the board for mid-July, but the weather will still be hot and humid one way or another with some risk of scattered, mostly afternoon showers and storms. The tropics remain quiet for now.

AIR QUALITY: A code orange air quality alert has been issued for Jefferson and Shelby counties for tomorrow due to ground level ozone.

FOLLOW ALONG: Connect with us on the social networks! Here is your invitation to follow me on Twitter, and on Facebook. You can also get all Alabama warnings on Twitter via E-Warn.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left.

Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!

* 2,000 is the number of homes that were destroyed by wildfires early this year in SE Australia, mostly in February. Wildfires can be as devastating to people as a large tornado.

* 173 people died in those wildfires–many of them trying to outrun the flames. Over 7,000 were left homeless.

* 8 degrees was the difference in low temperatures this morning between Birmingham Airport and Pinson–a distance of only about 7 air miles. The low at Birmingham was 72. That means that I missed the low temperature forecast by 9 degrees. Shame on me.

* 3.03 inches was the final June rain total at Birmingham Airport. We still a 1/2 inch surplus for the year.

* 4.65 inches of rain in just the last 24 hours at Tampa as Central Florida continues to experience a very wet pattern.

* 8.05 inches of rain at Orlando during June. They are 5 inches above average for the year. They had measurable rain on 14 days–an average of every other day. There was 7 days in a row with measurable rain in the month.

* 10.06 inches of rain in New York City (Central Park) during June. That is more than double the average. They had measurable rain an astounding 19 days out of the 30 days. They also had a cool month with June averaging almost 4 degrees below average. In Upstate New York, Saranac Lake had measurable rain on 17 days during June.

* 117 degrees is the forecast high temperature in Baghdad today and 118 tomorrow. In contrast, only 77 is the forecast high for Oslo, Norway. That city gets an overdose of nice, pleasant weather.

* 29,028 feet is the elevation of Mt. Everest, clearly the highest anywhere on earth. Mountains have a distinct impact on weather and climate. While Everest is the highest elevation above sea level, is that the tallest mountain on earth? The answer is no.

* 33,476 feet is how tall Mauna Key is in Hawaii. However, that is measured from its base on the ocean floor to its very top.

* 39 degrees was the temperature on Mauna Key early this morning with a brisk NW wind. We get a report every hour. Their dew point was minus 9 giving a relative humidity of only 12%. Yes, they can have snow and Mauna Key can have a substantial in some storms.

* 121 in Death Valley was the hottest in the good old USA yesterday. That station holds the all-time record for our country of 134. That is within 2 degrees of the hottest ever recorded in the world.

* 18 inches of snow (yes, let’s shift gears) was on the ground during the period of February 13-18 in 1960 at Moulton in NW Alabama’s Lawrence County.

* 4.81 inches is all the rain that fell on Birmingham during a 5-month stretch in 1924 from July through November. It was one of the worst droughts ever. During that stretch, only 0.01 fell in a stretch of eight weeks. We all know that 0.01 will not even make you open your umbrella.

* 116 is the average number of days per year that the temperature reaches or exceeds 90 degrees in South Alabama’s Geneva County.

* 62 inches was how much snow was on the ground at Rogers Pass, Montana at the time they recorded the coldest ever in the lower 48 states of 70 below zero. Around 2:15 a.m., loud popping noises continued in the small mountain cabin where the NWS coop observer lived with his two elderly uncles. His name was H. M. Kleinschmidt. He was the official observer and he could stand the noise no longer. He slipped out of bed and dressed warmly and looked at his window thermometer showing 68 below zero. He made his way through the deep snow to the instrument shelter where the official thermometers were exposed and noticed that the liquid in the minimum thermometer had receded into the bulb. He made a mark on it. Bottom line: the instrument was shipped to Washington for lab tests and that is when the all-time low was verified.

* Bill Hagerty, another weather geek from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania that I had met by mail, and I visited Rogers Pass later and I made the only photograph in existence of the weather station. I have promised for a long time, especially to Matt Padget, that I would write the complete story of that never to be forgotten trip. I am still going to do it.

* 3.55 inches is how much snow fell at North Osceola, New York during the incredible winter of 1995-96. 144 inches was the amount for the Blue Hill Observatory near Boston and 208 inches at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan.

* 49 degrees is how much the temperature shot upward in only 2 minutes at Spearfish, South Dakota, in the Black Hills, on January 22, 1943. The temperature was 4 below zero at 7:30 a.m. and 45 at 7:32–only 2 minutes later. That sounds incredible, but it actually happened. The sudden changes in temperature back and forth caused many of the plate glass windows in town to break out. Blame it on the famous Chinook wind. There are many more examples of unbelievable quick changes. I plan to write a story about those later.

* 111 degrees was recorded in the summer of 1930 at Madison, located near Huntsville. That was within 1 degree of the all-time high for the entire state of Alabama of 112 at Centreville, Bibb County, on September 5, 1925.

* 3 cups is all the coffee I have had this morning. Let me get back to more important things.

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below. You can subscribe to the Weather Xtreme video on iTunes by clicking here.

TODAY/TOMORROW: A surface front will pass through here today, but with a serious lack of moisture it looks like most communities over North Alabama will stay dry. Our internal RPM model does hint at a band of showers forming on the boundary south of Birmingham this afternoon, and we will mention a risk of isolated showers, but don’t look for too much action on radar today. Temperatures will rise back into the low to mid 90s today. Tomorrow should be dry with a fresh surge of dry air over Alabama.

FRIDAY AND THE WEEKEND: We will introduce some risk of an afternoon storm Friday as the door is open for an MCS to move into Alabama from the northwest. Then, for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, we expect a mixture of clouds and sun Saturday and Sunday with a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms both days. The most numerous storms should be over the northern half of the state, but there also should be some decent intervals of sunshine. The GFS is printing highs generally in the upper 80s, but if we get a decent amount of sun we could easily reach 90. This is the middle of summer, after all. It is impossible to tell you exactly when and where the showers will form on Saturday and Sunday, but there is a reasonable chance the showers will fade by the time the fireworks shows begin Saturday night around 9:00.

NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND: A surface front will try to move into Alabama early next week; we all know Alabama is the cold front graveyard time time of the year, and I am not too convinced the boundary will move south of I-20. So, we will keep the chance of scattered showers and storms going on a daily basis through much of next week with afternoon highs in the low 90s, which is where we should be this time of the year.

Watch the Weather Xtreme video and you will see the nasty 5940 meter circle showing up on the 500 mb progs at mid-month from near Birmingham to Omaha; that can represent pretty significant heat. But, this is the first time we have seen it, and hopefully it will be gone on future runs.

FOLLOW ALONG: Connect with us on the social networks! Here is your invitation to follow me on Twitter, and on Facebook. You can also get all Alabama warnings on Twitter via E-Warn.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left.

Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 3:30 this afternoon… enjoy the day!

Thought I would show you the team I have been coaching for the last several weeks… this is the Hoover East 12u All-Star team; we have been together since the regular season ended in May. We won our fair share of games, and had plenty of fun along the way. Hopefully great memories these kids can take with them for the rest of their lives.

Thanks to Bobby Hanley of Hanley Photography for his great work in putting this together for our team! You can contact him if you are interested in a similar poster for your son’s team… they love this much more than a trophy.

All right all your Facebook Weather Fans across the Fruited Plain…

Here is your assignment:

Go add “AF Reserve Hurricane Hunters” fan page to your Facebook account.

Tanya King, Public Affairs Specialist, needs 1,000 fans to be able to reserve the Facebook domain name “Hurricane Hunters”

She says they will also be doing storm updates on the fan page and on Twitter@403pa.

Show the men and women of the Hurricane Hunters how much we appreciate the invaluable job that they do. Become a fan and show your support with a post to this comment!

And tell all your friends!!!

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below. You can subscribe to the Weather Xtreme video on iTunes by clicking here.

RIGHT NOW: Nothing but severe clear across much of Alabama as dry air continues to cover the state. At 2:00… Birmingham is at 91 degrees, but with a dewpoint of only 54, the relative humidity is a very low 28 percent. A “dry heat” if you will. We should drop well down into the 60s again tonight, and some of the cooler spots could visit the 50s again. Scroll down for a list of lows around Alabama this morning, as compiled by the great American weather legend, J.B. Elliott.

THE DAYS AHEAD: A surface front will drop down through Alabama tomorrow, but with moisture so limited, we have to figure the front should pass through generally dry. We do note the GFS shows a band of isolated showers along the front tomorrow afternoon, but we won’t mention it in our formal forecast for now. A fresh supply of dry air will arrive tomorrow night, and it looks like we can remove any risk of a shower Thursday with dry air in place.

We will bring in some risk of a shower or storm late Friday as moist air returns, but most of the day should be dry.

HOLIDAY WEEKEND: The 12Z GFS is a little drier for the weekend, but there is no doubt we will need to mention at least a chance of scattered showers and storms on Saturday and Sunday with a moist airmass in place, and a weak surface front to the north. Afternoon highs should be in the 87 to 90 degree range due to the showers, but there should be a few decent intervals of sunshine. The chance of any one spot getting wet Saturday and Sunday is about 1 in 2.

NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND: We will keep the chance of scattered showers and storms going on Monday and Tuesday. The GFS continue to try and push another surge of drier air in here by the middle of next week, but dry lines rarely pass through Alabama in July. Looks like rather routine summer weather for the middle and later part of next week, with highs around 90 and some risk of scattered showers and storms on a daily basis in the humid air that should be covering Alabama at the time.

TROPICS: We will keep an eye on the old front down in the northern Gulf for any sign of development, but for now all is quiet across the Atlantic basin.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 30 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. You can even listen here on the blog; look for the player on the top left. Scroll down for the show notes on this week’s new episode we recorded last night.

FOLLOW ALONG: Connect with us on the social networks! Here is your invitation to follow me on Twitter, and on Facebook. You can also get all Alabama warnings on Twitter via E-Warn.

I had a great time in Gadsden this morning visiting with my friends at CED Mental Health Center, and then the Gadsden Boys and Girls Club. Look for the kids on the Pepsi KIDCAM today at 5:00 on ABC 33/40 News. The next Weather Xtreme video will be posted here by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!