JB’s Journal

I promised that I would not post this feature during times of heavy blog traffic since this feature is non-urgent, and will probably be non-interesting at times. But I do have a few notes I wanted to share this morning.
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* I am a strong person mentally and emotionally. But I am also very softhearted, especially when kids are involved. For that reason, I am not ashamed to say that I cried this morning when reading the front page of the Birmingham News. It is a story of a young third grade girl reading a letter to two of her Concord Elementary students, an eight-year old girl and her 10-year old brother and their mother that were killed in the Concord tornado. Much of the class cried as they read letters composed as a tribute to their fallen friends. After the readings, 28 white doves from Love Birds, Inc., were released but two were held back to represent the two fallen classmates. The 28 circled overhead until the other two were released. Then they circled for a bit and then flew away.

* I am holding in my coffee-stained fingers, but never nicotine stained, the May 9 issue of Newsweek. On page 10-11 is a color photo spanning both pages of Concord after the tornado. It is one of the most graphic I have seen. Not only are homes totally missing but also foundations were swept away. Every single leaf is stripped from the trees and some have much of the bark peeled off. I like to study still pictures for a long time to learn as much as I can.

* Sure enjoyed a two-hour jam session Friday morning at Trussville Cracker Barrel with my friend, Matt Marshall, from Willard, Utah. He is a real weather geek. He and his wife moved from Alabama to Utah because they love to ski. He has been up Logan Canyon to near Peters Sink which once had 69 below zero and I have been to Roger’s Pass, Mont., which holds the USA record of 70 below. So we had plenty to talk about.

* What ever happened to “thundershowers?” For many, many years that was a typical word in weather forecasts. I have often wondered when a thundershower became a thunderstorm. Maybe the US Weather Bureau/National Weather Service had he same thoughts. It is never used any more. Weather terms evolve over the years. I still miss “Cold Wave Warning.” As a high school kid, and already a confirmed weather geek, I used to get up early (4 am in Havana Junction) and tune in distant 50,000 watt AM stations such as WHO, Des Moines, WLS, Chicago and KSTP, Minneapolis and when they would say, Cold Wave Warning. I would shiver!

* I want to explain the story of “severe clear” soon. You occasionally hear James use it on TV. The way it got started is strange!

Outta here…

Category: Alabama's Weather, Hodgepodge