Archive for June 8th, 2012
Beneficial Rains Ahead For Alabama
**No afternoon Weather Xtreme video due to travel; I am in Gadsden for live weather from Riverfest at 4, 5, and 6:00 on ABC 33/40**
TURNING WET: Not much change in the overall forecast thinking. An upper low will slowly move eastward along the Gulf Coast in coming days, and promises to bring a big rain event to the Southeast U.S. Below is the expected rain across the nation over the next five days…
As you can see, rain amounts of 2 inches are likely for this part of the Deep South, with potential for more.
TIMING: For North and Central Alabama, we should be rain-free tomorrow morning, but scattered showers and storms should begin to develop by mid to late afternoon. Still, the most widespread rain tomorrow will be to the south and west, closer to the upper low. Then, widespread rain is likely Sunday, along with a few thunderstorms. Sunday could very well turn out to be a “wash-out” kind of day with a long duration soaking for a pretty large part of Alabama. Many communities won’t get out of the 70s Sunday because of the clouds and rain.
The rain will continue on Monday, then tapering off to the more routine scattered showers and thunderstorms Tuesday and Wednesday. Drier air invades North Alabama over the latter half of the week with showers becoming few and far between by Thursday and Friday.
GULF COAST WEATHER: Wet is the word… expect showers and thunderstorms through Monday, with potential for heavy rain at times and a few strong storms. The high will be around 80 each day with only a limited amount of sunshine. Showers will become more widely spaced by the middle part of next week with increasing amounts of sunshine.
WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 90 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.
CONNECT: You can find me on all of the major social networks…
My next Weather Xtreme video will be posted bright and early Monday morning by 7:00… Brian Peters will have the video updates tomorrow and Sunday. Enjoy the weekend!
The 1984 Barneveld MN F5 Tornado
On the morning of Thursday, June 7, 1984, weather maps showed a major trough of low pressure across the western United States, anchored by an upper low over the northern Rockies. A long cold front snaked from Canada down through the Upper Midwest into the Plains. An occluded low pressure system was over southern Canada. A new low pressure system had formed to the south and was moving northeast off the plains of eastern Colorado. A strong complex of thunderstorms had moved through the Upper Midwest during the early morning hours, but across the region, the atmosphere reloaded quickly as dewpoints were in the middle and upper 60s.
By afternoon, an explosive situation was in place with high instabilities and increasing wind shear as the low pressure system intensified while moving toward the Upper Midwest. Thunderstorms broke out during the afternoon from Minnesota into Iowa. Tornado reports started to come in by mid-afternoon, where a rash of at least fourteen tornadoes plagued the northwestern part of the state.
Further south, other tornadoes touched down in Missouri. One family of tornadoes started near the Missouri/Iowa border. This supercell storm produced at least four tornadoes along a 140 mile path across much of Iowa. Three tornadoes were rated as F3s and one was rated F4 out of the afternoon activity. The F4 tore through the town of Wright, Iowa, killing two. The tiny town was completely leveled, with all 25 homes destroyed and all but two buildings destroyed. In addition, one person died near Ringgold, Iowa and three more in Harrison County, Missouri.
The deadliest tornado of the outbreak would come during the early morning hours of June 8th. The complex of storms that had produced the long-track tornadoes in Iowa weakened during the evening hours. As it moved toward southwestern Wisconsin, it encountered a higher level of instability and shear and the storms began to strengthen. A tornado watch was issued at 11 p.m. As soon as a watch is issued for your location MyWARN will alert you. The first tornado touched down around 12:30 a.m., remaining on the ground for several minutes. A more powerful tornado touched down near Mineral Point. A few miles to the northeast, many of the 582 residents in the town of Barneveld were awakened by a massive clap of thunder right before the power went out. The town’s tornado sirens remained silent due to the power outage even as the huge F5 tornado roared toward Barneveld. This is why it is extremely important to have multiple sources for severe weather notifications, MyWARN being one of them.
As the tornado ripped through Barneveld, it was at least 400 yards wide. When it finished its destructive rampage, 90% of the town lay in ruins. Seventeen of eighteen businesses were destroyed, as well as the municipal building, bank, post office, fire station and three churches. A total of 93 homes were destroyed and another 64 heavily damaged. A total of nine people lost their lives in the inky blackness that night, while 200 were injured. The town’s water tower was damaged, but was the only thing left standing amidst the tremendous devastation.
For years, residents of the tiny town spent many a sleepless night listening to every rustle of the wind for the sound of another deadly night-time visitor.
Alabama’s Weather About To Turn Wet
An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player on the right sidebar of the blog. You can subscribe to the Weather Xtreme video on iTunes by clicking here.
ONE MORE DRY DAY: Today will be very similar to yesterday; dry and warm with a partly sunny sky and a high in the mid to upper 80s. But things will change over the weekend thanks to an upper low now over the upper Texas coast, and rising moisture levels.
THE WEEKEND: Tomorrow should begin dry, but we will bring in the chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms by afternoon. The most widespread rain tomorrow initially should be in areas south and west of Birmingham, closest to the upper low, which will be moving slowly east along the Gulf Coast. But, the rain will be moving northeast and should overspread the northern counties late in the day or tomorrow night.
SUNDAY/MONDAY SOAKER: Beneficial rain should fall on most of Alabama on these two days as dynamic forcing from the upper low interacts very very high PW (precipitable water) values. There will be breaks in the rain, of course, but the weather generally looks very wet. Rain amounts of 2 inches are likely, and some spots could get more. In fact, the guys at HPC (the hydrometeorological prediction center) are forecasting a whopping 10 inches of rain along the Central Gulf Coast near Pensacola over the next 5 days…. see that graphic on the Weather Xtreme video.
REST OF NEXT WEEK: A very moist airmass remains in place on Tuesday and Wednesday, and while the upper low weakens into an open wave, we will still maintain the chance of scattered to numerous showers and storms on these days. The air looks a little drier Thursday and Friday, but we will still need to mention some risk of scattered showers.
The good news is that there is no sign of any serious heat issues for Alabama over the next 7 to 15 days, with temperatures generally below average.
GULF COAST WEATHER: Wet is the word. Look for scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms along the Central Gulf Coast from Panama City to Gulf Shores through early next week… with only limited amounts of sun. The rain could be heavy at times, and some flash flooding is not out of the question. Afternoon highs will be close to 80 due to the clouds and showers. The sea water temperature early this morning at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab was 83 degrees.
WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 90 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.
CONNECT: You can find me on all of the major social networks…
I will be on the road later today, and will be doing the weather live at Riverfest in Gadsden at 4, 5, and 6:00… so just one Weather Xtreme video today due to travel. I will post fresh forecast notes, however, later today, and Brian Peters will have the video updates tomorrow and Sunday. Enjoy the day!
