The Friday morning edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme video is available in the player below, and on iTunes:
The long awaited shot of cold air is here. As I write this, our SKYCAM site at Hamilton is showing 31 degrees with a wind chill index of 18. Ouch. The cold air will continue to move eastward this morning with falling temperatures and strong west winds. For the Birmingham metro area, I think we fall into the upper 30s this morning before recovering slightly into the low 40s this afternoon as the sun returns. Our friends up in Northwest Alabama will probably stay in the 30s all day. To the east, folks in Anniston will drop to near 40 by midday and stay there through the afternoon. Wind chill values will remain below freezing much of the day, so dress warmly.
The weekend will be cool and dry; we begin the day tomorrow in the 25 to 30 degree range, and expect highs in the mid 50s tomorrow and Sunday. A fresh shot of colder air rolls in here Sunday night, and that should drop the high on Monday into the 40s. Looks like a significant freeze both Monday and Tuesday morning of next week with the mercury well down in the 20s. Tuesday should be the coldest morning with a low somewhere between 21 and 26 degrees.
END OF NEXT WEEK: No really good run to run consistency on the next wave due in here at the end of next week, but there should be some light rain either Thursday or Friday (December 7-8).
LONG RANGE: The GFS continues to hint at some rain (maybe some thunderstorms too) around December 12, and a deep system shows up in the December 15-16 time with rain and storms followed by a sharp change back to colder weather. Bottom line is that the weather looks very changeable through mid-month.
DEMOPOLIS DAMAGE: Sure looks like a significant tornado touched down in Demopolis around 9:30 last night. The tornado dropped out of a band of low topped showers with no lightning or thunder. Those showers were under 20,000 feet, and the radar beam was simply too high for a good rotational signature, and accordingly there was no tornado warning. Not even a tornado watch at the time. Quite a reminder for all of us that low CAPE, high shear environments with very strong forcing can produce dangerous weather, even without all of the classic severe weather parameters in place.
NWS survey teams will report back to us later today and we will report their findings here on the blog; watch ABC 33/40 this morning for coverage on the storm. After seeing flipped mobile homes and structural damage to an apartment complex, it is simply amazing nobody was seriously hurt. Especially with no tornado warning.
When I first heard of the damage, I had great concern since this is Christmas On The River week in Demopolis, and hundreds of RVs and campers are lined up in town since people started arriving earlier in the week. There is plenty of work to do, but I know my friends down there will have the place cleaned up for tomorrow’s big day. Learn more about Christmas On The River on this blog post from early in the week.
One more note… don’t fault the NWS guys for no warning. If I was working the desk down there I would not have had a warning going either. No lightning, no thunder, no severe weather with the showers in Mississippi, no decent radar signatures, nothing. It is simply a limitation of the science. The same thing could happen again over and over and a warning was just not possible. Lets hope the next generation of radar might be able to help; that beam would have to be mighty low to catch that event.
If you have damage pictures from Demopolis send them on and I will post them on the blog.
Thanks to J.B. and Bill Murray for their great work on the blog last night, and to Brian Peters for coming to the ABC 33/40 weather office to help. Also, a special thanks to our team of Skywatchers for their great work and observations last night. Click here if you want to learn more about being involved.
After two hours of sleep this morning I might try to squeeze in a brief nap today! I will have the afternoon blog discussion posted on time, by 3:30 this afternoon. Enjoy the day and stay warm…
