I am holding in my little fingers the James Spann Weather Fax dated October 4, 1995. It was a combined Afternoon Edition and Special Edition. Back in those days, we did three editions—one for West Alabama, one for the Birmingham area and the third for East Alabama.
On this particular day, we combined it mainly because of Opal. We even redesigned the format in order to have much more room for the actual local forecast.
Traffic jams had been reported along the Alabama/NW Florida coast as people were trying to flee inland from the onslaught of Hurricane Opal. We warned that some folks might see the highest water levels of their lifetime. This is the exact wording of our forecast for that Wednesday night for the greater Birmingham area:
TONIGHT: A major weather event overnight with danger of damaging winds, possible spin-off tornadoes and flash flooding. Extensive rain all night, very heavy at times and causing flash flooding. Winds will be increasing late today and tonight. We could easily have gusts 60 mph or greater. This may cause significant tree and utility line damage
It turned out to be a very accurate forecast. The rest is history. Opal made landfall on the NW Florida Coast, moved quickly into South Alabama, passed near or over Montgomery around 10 that night. The mean ole “lady” continued north passing between Birmingham and Anniston. She uprooted thousands and thousands of trees (millions is probably a better word) all the way up into East Tennessee.
I was in the Channel 6 Weather Office doing almost continuous radio broadcasts on WERC, Magic-96 and 102.5 FM while James was busy with TV.
Not long after midnight, James and I stepped out the back door of Channel 6 to go home. Instantly, we came very close to being struck by lightning. I am still shaking as I write this.
Goes to show you that life can be long or short, depending greatly how careful you are. Remember, “Lightning is Frightening”, Tailgating is dangerous.
TWO THINGS TO PONDER?
1. How dangerous will our prime tornado season be?
2. How about our 2009 hurricane season. How many?
ANSWER: I don’t know.
