Alabama 811 | Know What's Below.

A Great Day To Be Bill

| June 17, 2015 @ 2:59 pm

2015-06-17_13-53-20

One of my favorite weather days is when I get to experience a dying tropical system well inland. It goes back to September 1971, when the remnants of Hurricane Edith tracked right across Central Alabama as a tropical depression after making landfall over southwestern Louisiana. It meant a day playing hookie for a fourth grader from McElwain Elementary, who was enamored with weather.

I have watched systems like 1979’s Hurricane Frederic, 1985’s Danny, 1995’s Opal and 2004’s Ivan as they dealt us fits across Central Alabama. But storms like Edith, Barry in 2001, Fay in 2008 and Lee in 2011 just led to gray, windy, rainy days.

My namesake tropical storms have been fairly tame. 2003’s Bill brought lots of rain to Alabama, especially southern sections. Little did I know that the 2015 iteration of my namesake would come right to me. But not in Alabama. Business serendipitously carried me to southern Oklahoma this week, ending up at the National Weather Association Mid Year Council Meeting in Norman Friday and Saturday.

Of course, I had been tracking the prospects of something developing over the Gulf for nearly ten days. As fate would have it, the eventual storm made landfall on the Central Texas Coast yesterday and turned northward. The extensive shield of rain arrived here in Ardmore this morning. Winds have been averaging 10-20 mph with gusts as high as 26 mph over the past three hours. The center is near Fort Worth this afternoon and is expected to move right up I-35, perhaps passing directly over us later.

bill current_anim_okc

All day long, I have heard people talking about Bill. “Bill is going to give us a soaking,” someone said at breakfast. “Have you heard the latest on Bill,” was overheard in the lobby of the hotel. The commentators on The Weather Channel playing in the fitness center said they were “tracking Bill”.

Instead of driving this morning, I walked across the street to my appointment in order to enjoy the weather, letting the rain pelt my raincoat and blow my trusty umbrella. I braved the wind and rain in my rental car to grab a Braum’s hamburger for lunch, driving through the flooded right lane and running the windshield wipers on high. When I ordered, the restaurant team member mentioned that she had “had about enough of Bill”.

I just smiled. It is a great day to be Bill, especially if you are in Oklahoma.

Category: Headlines

About the Author ()

Bill Murray is the President of The Weather Factory. He is the site's official weather historian and a weekend forecaster. He also anchors the site's severe weather coverage. Bill Murray is the proud holder of National Weather Association Digital Seal #0001 @wxhistorian

Comments are closed.