Archive for November 10th, 2012

Temperatures Overnight and Into Veterans Day

| November 10, 2012 @ 4:57 pm

It was a beautiful day across much of Alabama and the Southeast today. Above normal temperatures as well as an abundance sunshine and blue skies were everywhere.  As we head through the rest of your evening, very nice conditions will continue. Once the sun goes down, temperatures will begin their fall and looking at the forecast lows for early Sunday morning, temperatures should vary across Alabama from near 45 to 55 degrees. Valleys will be colder than the ridge tops, but on average the an overnight low around 50 degree mark, so not as cold as last night, where many areas where into the 30s.

Veteran’s Day will have gorgeous weather as well. Sunday will be a near repeat of today, just expect the winds to be a bit more breezy.Temperatures should warm up rapidly through the early morning and into the afternoon. Forecast temperature map shows most of central Alabama will be in the low 70s with many areas near 75. Make sure you enjoy it, the tight temperature gradient on the map shows the front through central Missouri and well on its way towards the Southeast and Central Alabama.

THANK YOU ! ! !

| November 10, 2012 @ 3:58 pm

Thank you to all of those who came to Storm Alert Xtreme at the BJCC today. I think we had a crowd of nearly 450 based on the fact that the place was set for about 500 people. And there were just not a lot of empty chairs.

I sincerely hope the storm spotter training was worth your time. It’s so wonderful to see so many people who care about their community enough to give up much of a Saturday, and an absolutely beautiful Saturday at that! You all are great, but I do hope you won’t have to use the information you got today any time soon.

-Brian-

A Check on the Clouds

| November 10, 2012 @ 2:10 pm

Great conditions across much of the Southeast today as an area of high pressure in Georgia is the main feature controlling our weather, with mostly sunny skies all across the region. You can pick out where the front is and the dividing line between the cold air and warm air across central Nebraska. Thick, low hanging clouds are spread all across the northern Plains with a mass of very cold air. This air will begin to plunge south as soon as the low pressure system in Colorado begins to move east. This satellite image will fill in as we head through out the day as very tall thunderstorms will develop in the Central Plains.

For us in the Southeast, our mostly clear skies should remain in place until at least tomorrow as the front will be easing its way towards us. Much of central Alabama should have a mostly sunny Veterans Day. The clouds and storms should begin to make there way in overnight Sunday night.

Severe Weather Today and Tomorrow Off to Our West

| November 10, 2012 @ 12:30 pm

A very strong low pressure system with a trailing cold front will be ushering in a some much colder air across much of the United States this weekend and into next week. This system will be moving out from the Rockies today and as it gets out into the Plains, quite a bit of severe weather is expected today. You can see by the risk outlined by the SPC that anywhere from west Texas to southern Minnesota will have a threat today. This region looks as though it will experience damaging winds, large hail and even the threat for some tornadoes, especially early in the severe weather event. At first, supercell thunderstorms should develop and those are the ones that will need to be watched for the the threat of tornadoes. These storms should merge into a squall line as we head into the overnight hours.

For Tomorrow the threat will be shifting further south and east. As you can see the SPC has a large portion of the Red River Valley and the Lower Mississippi River Valley under a slight risk for severe weather tomorrow. Little Rock, Shreveport are under the gun with this risk and maybe Memphis by late in the evening. The squall line from today’s activity should be ongoing tomorrow morning. Storms could have the potential to produce large hail, damaging winds and a brief tornado or two. This system warrants watching as these storms could be impacting central Alabama early Monday morning.

The Veteran’s Day Tornado Outbreak (2002)

| November 10, 2012 @ 10:00 am

On this date in 2002, an unusually widespread and strong late season outbreak of severe weather struck from Louisiana to Pennsylvania.

Seventy six tornadoes were reported across 17 states between Friday night on November 9 and the early morning hours of Monday the 11th.

It was the second largest November tornado outbreak in recorded history and one of the largest all-time. A total of 36 people died.

Tennessee was the hardest hit with seventeen killed. Two waves of severe weather hit the Volunteer State, with severe weather beginning on Saturday night, November 9th and continuing into into the predawn hours in western sections of the state. Two people died in northwestern Tennessee as tornadoes swept through Montgomery County.

The main action in Tennessee and nationally came starting on Sunday afternoon as severe weather erupted along a long line like a string of firecrackers. The town of Mossy Grove, TN was “wiped off the map” by a destructive tornado that killed 7 people. A NOAA Weatheradio prompted a well prepared theater manager in Van Wert, Ohio to evacuate his patrons minutes before a tornado heavily damaged the building, throwing a vehicle on the stage.

Alabama was also hard-hit with twelve fatalities. The Saragossa Tornado, which killed eight, was on the ground for 73 miles, making it the fourth longest path length of any tornado in modern Alabama history. The town of Carbon Hill was dealt a heavy blow. In June 2002, the town’s high school had burned to the grounfd. On this deadly night, an F3 tornado destroyed the town’s elementary school.

Beautiful Today, Storms Monday

| November 10, 2012 @ 5:56 am

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.

Working feverishly to get the Weather Xtreme Video done so I can head down to the BJCC for Storm Alert Xtreme today. Hope to see you there.

It is expected to be a gorgeous Fall day today across the Southeast US with plenty of sun and highs climbing into the lower 70s. But an upper disturbance will bring a strong front into the area on Monday bringing us rain and thunderstorms and some much colder air again. In fact, depending on the exact timing of the front, Monday could be one of those days when the highs occur in the early morning hours or just after midnight with temperatures steady or falling through the day. And the GFS and ECMWF models are in great agreement on the timing of this system.

High pressure returns at the surface to bring us cool but dry weather through the end of the week with ridging in the upper atmosphere. A short wave moving through the Central US could bring a chance for rain to us on Saturday or Sunday of next weekend, but the GFS and European have some pretty large differences on the timing of this next system. So for now we’ll keep Friday dry and hope the European is right.

SPC has outlooks for a slight risk for Days 1 and 2, but at the moment, there is no outlook for severe storms on Monday. It does appear to be a marginal situation, but we’ll watch how it develops to make sure there is no serious threat.

Tropics are quiet except for an area of disturbed weather in the far eastern Atlantic.

And you can follow news and weather updates from ABC 33/40 on Twitter here. Stay in the know by following the whole gang – here’s the list…

James Spann Charles Daniel Ashley Brand
J. B. Elliott Bill Murray Brian Peters
E-Warn (AL wx watches/warnings)

Headed down to the BJCC shortly and hope to see you at Storm Alert Xtreme to talk about severe weather and storm spotting. Next video will come first thing Sunday morning. Godspeed.

-Brian-