Calm Days

An all new edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes…

Scroll down for some good aerial shots of the damage up in Lawrence County… and storm reports from the Birmingham and Huntsville NWS offices. Brian Peters of our staff is on a NWS QRT (Quick Response Team) that has declared the Jackson County tornado as an EF4. Brian will be up in Tennessee today doing more work that that team. Scroll down for some of his pictures from yesterday…

RIGHT NOW: We begin this day with temperatures near the freezing mark in most areas; we will rise into the mid 50s today with a good supply of sunshine; these temperatures are what you expect on February 7 in Alabama.

THE DAYS AHEAD: A nice upper trough will rotate through here tonight, but no moisture means no precipitation. We stay dry through the weekend with comfortable days and chilly nights. We will rise to near 60 degrees tomorrow and Saturday, but Sunday will be cooler thanks to a fresh shot of Canadian air.

NEXT WEEK: The 06Z GFS shows a significant upper trough impacting Alabama by the middle of next week; in fact it looks like it might be a setup for strong thunderstorms on Wednesday with a surface low over western Kentucky, and good support aloft from the trough. But, model consistency has not been good and we need a few more days under our belt before we get too comfortable in any specific solution.

STORM ALERT 2008 IS TONIGHT! Tonight we will be in Anniston at the City Meeting Center on Noble Street. This is our annual severe weather awareness tour; the doors open at 5:00… you can come early and meet the ABC 33/40 Weather Team. As always, we will share some great Alabama weather stories and you will have a chance of winning some great prizes. We will see you there!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I wondered how long it was going to take before politicians tell us that the tornado outbreak this week was the result of “global warming”. Give me a break. I am glad that article refers to Roger Edward’s excellent research debunking the politicians. Roger is one of the best meteorologists on staff at the Storm Prediction Center. Roger’s words: ” To predict future worldwide changes in something we haven’t sharply defined, can’t even count or measure very well, and that we often can’t predict an hour from now, all based on a model that doesn’t know it exists.”

While I am in the rant mode, seems like the national media is determined to blame the deaths across the nation because of the “lack of sirens”. As you know, for many years I have told people that sirens are not designed to reach people in their home, and you should never rely on them (have a NOAA Weather Radio!). But, now these guys come along with a rallying cry for people in homes to depend on a siren to tell them a tornado is coming. They just don’t get it.

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.

WEATHER PARTY: Get all the latest weather news over on our sister site, WeatherParty.com. Be sure and register while you are there; you can submit stories and vote on them to determine what is published on the front page. This is a great way to find the latest weather-related news stories.

I am off to Attalla this morning to speak at the Etowah Career Training Center… I will be back in the office by early afternoon and the next Weather Xtreme video should be posted by 3:30 or so. Enjoy the day!

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