May 19, 2026
“We Prayed” — The Night the F4 Tornado Tore Through Fort Payne
“We Prayed” — The Night an F4 Tornado Changed Fort Payne Forever By the evening of May 19, 1973, the...
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May 19, 2026
“We Prayed” — The Night an F4 Tornado Changed Fort Payne Forever By the evening of May 19, 1973, the...
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March 28, 2026
Meteotsunamis. Sound pretty scary, don't they? Meteotsnuamis are not tsunamis that happen at the same time a meteor strikes. Rather,...
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March 27, 2026
On March 27, 2004, meteorologists in Brazil and at the National Hurricane Center were confronted with an unusual and unexpected...
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March 27, 2026
On March 27, 1977, a chain of unusual circumstances led to the deadliest commercial aviation accident in history on the...
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November 30, 2025
This is Part Two of our look back at the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, a year that began quietly but...
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November 29, 2025
2025 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON – PART 1 The 2025 Atlantic season will be remembered as strange and top-heavy: only 13...
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November 29, 2025
Daily Briefing Saturday, November 29, 2025 ALABAMA YESTERDAY Black Friday dawned clear and cold across Alabama, with readings in...
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November 26, 2025
On this date in 1973, a late-November outbreak brought several brief tornadoes to northwest Alabama, but the day is remembered...
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November 23, 2025
Alabamians paid little attention to the weather forecast on Thanksgiving morning, November 23, 1950. The Birmingham News carried a lead...
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August 17, 2025
Another fairly prototypical summer day is in store for Alabama as high pressure dominates our weather. There is a little...
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April 15, 2025
SPLENDID SPRING WEATHER: A cold front moved through Alabama overnight, bringing the clouds we are seeing this morning in Alabama....
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March 21, 2025
Alabama recorded its worst weather disaster on March 21, 1932, as two waves of violent tornadoes tore through the state...
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December 25, 2024
White Christmases in Birmingham are incredibly rare due to the region's warmer climate. The official definition of a White Christmas—having...
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December 23, 2024
Just after midnight, on an early Sunday morning, just two days before Christmas, a family of four small tornadoes skipped...
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November 20, 2024
A tornado struck the southern part of Tuscaloosa early on Sunday morning, November 20, 1988, at 12:53 a.m., heavily damaging...
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November 17, 2024
November 17, 1957 was a Sunday. Newspaper headlines chronicled a deadly crash of the New York Central passenger train, The...
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April 3, 2024
By Bill Murray Early on the morning of April 3, 1974, the midpoint of J.B. Elliott's overnight shift at the...
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February 3, 2024
A three-day winter storm brought a mixture of freezing and frozen precipitation to the northern half of Alabama on February...
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January 28, 2024
In the midst of the Spanish Succession War, a remarkable and unexpected föhn event unfolded in the winter of 1704...
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January 25, 2024
The January thaw is a weather singularity. A singularity is an event that occurs more often than one would expect...
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December 3, 2023
The 1983 Iron Bowl game is one of the greatest in the history of the rivalry. It was played at...
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November 25, 2023
Beautiful weather ironically was a contributing factor in a deadly Alabama train wreck near Woodstock on Thanksgiving Day in 1951....
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November 12, 2023
On November 12, 1951, a severe blizzard struck Evanston, Wyoming, setting the stage for a tragic collision between two of...
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August 29, 2023
The Cedar Keys is a group of islands off the Florida Big Bend. You will hear a lot about it...
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August 11, 2023
The National Weather Service in Birmingham has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Southeastern Walker County in central Alabama......
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April 2, 2023
On the morning of April 2, 1974, Mr. Robert Ferry, the Meteorologist in Charge of the National Weather Service Forecast...
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December 7, 2022
The high pressure over the Gulf of Mexico is responsible for the warm weather across the Deep South here in...
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October 31, 2022
Clearing skies tonight are allowing for good traditional cooling tonight that will lead to the development of widespread fog over...
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October 29, 2022
Ten years ago tonight, we were talking on WeatherBrains about the storm that emergency managers feared for New York City....
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September 12, 2021
42 years ago today, Alabama and the Gulf Coast were bracing for impact from Hurricane Frederic, which would make landfall...
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May 15, 2021
Electricity will likely be disrupted and communication networks such as cell phones, computers, landline telephones, and the Internet may be...
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May 14, 2021
Once you and your family are prepared, directly help individual family members or friends who are especially vulnerable and need...
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May 13, 2021
Preparing your home for hurricanes can mean the difference between minor damage and complete destruction. Strengthening your home to withstand...
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May 12, 2021
Understanding your insurance needs is an essential preparation step for you and your family. Getting the right type and amount...
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May 11, 2021
You’re going to need supplies not just to get through the storm but for the potentially lengthy and unpleasant aftermath....
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May 10, 2021
The first thing you need to do is find out if you live in a hurricane evacuation zone. If you...
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May 9, 2021
Be ready for hurricane season. Over the week ahead, you can determine your personal hurricane risk, find out if you...
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May 5, 2021
Before the storm... The days leading up to April 27th were extremely busy and also a time filled with an...
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April 25, 2021
Tuesday, April 27th, 2021 will mark the 10-year anniversary of the historic severe weather outbreak that devastated portions of the...
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April 25, 2021
The NWS in Birmingham sent out this PNS 34 years ago today... PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL...
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February 26, 2021
Know what the beach flag colors mean BEFORE you head to the beach. When you get to the beach, always...
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February 25, 2021
Know Before You Go! One of the best ways to be prepared for rip currents and other beach hazards is...
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February 24, 2021
Staying safe at the beach means knowing the dangers BEFORE you head out! Great beach weather does not always mean...
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February 23, 2021
Did you know that waves do not need to be huge for rip currents to form? Rip Currents are strongest...
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February 21, 2021
On the morning of Sunday, February 21, 1971, a surface low was over Central Texas near Waco. The low had...
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October 11, 2020
June- too soon. July-- stand by! August-- look out you must. September-- remember. October, all over. That is an old...
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September 9, 2020
Catch ABC 33/40’s Chief Meteorologist James Spann over at the National Weather Association's Virtual WeatherReady Fest 2020 website as he...
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September 7, 2020
RECORD EVENT REPORT...PRELIMINARY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA 900 PM PDT SUN SEP 6 2020 ...ONE OF THE HOTTEST...
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August 26, 2020
Hurricane Laura will make landfall after midnight tonight as a strong category four, and possibly as a category five hurricane!...
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July 26, 2020
July 1952 was a terrible month for heat and forest fires in Alabama. It goes down in the record books...
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April 12, 2020
Low-level moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and even the tropics continues and is a necessary ingredient for severe storms...
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April 3, 2020
If you missed out on seeing this week's live feed from James Spann, well we have it on the blog...
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March 30, 2020
Weather101 is a series of FREE online classes to help the public learn about meteorology and forecasting. These classes will...
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March 19, 2020
Just in case you missed the live feed on Facebook this morning, or just want to go back and watch...
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March 6, 2020
*** Rescheduled to March 31st as Dr. Roueche will be in Tennessee evaluating damage from the tornadoes that struck on...
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March 4, 2020
Satellite Sheldon is back this morning sharing some great information on where our excessive moisture has come from over the...
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March 2, 2020
Satellite Sheldon is back and is showing us where the moisture will be coming from that will increase the chances...
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March 1, 2020
March roared in like a lion across the Deep South as a powerful storm system triggered an outbreak of tornadoes...
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February 24, 2020
I don't have to tell you how wet Mississippi, Alabama, and parts of the Southeast US have been the last...
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November 25, 2019
ON THIS DATE IN 1950: Alabamians paid little attention to the weather forecast on Thanksgiving morning, November 23, 1950. The...
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September 2, 2019
The Labor Day Hurricane struck the Florida keys on this date in 1935. Weather reports from Cuba during the day...
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July 28, 2019
Headlines on the last weekend in July 1945 focused on the planning for the dreaded invasion of Japan by Allied...
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March 3, 2019
This is historical information from 1966. See the rest of the blog for the latest on today's Alabama Weather Situation....
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February 3, 2019
What is the greatest song of your generation? The song that made you think, or was an instrument of change?...
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January 13, 2019
A powerful cold front moved through on Saturday, January 9, 1982, sending temperatures plummeting. The high on Saturday was 49F,...
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December 20, 2018
2018 was an active weather year across Central Alabama, and it is still not finished. The year started off with...
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December 18, 2018
On Saturday night, December 8th, a high wind event brought strong winds of 30-50 mph to a wide area of...
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December 1, 2018
? The 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season is in the books. It came to a close yesterday after producing 15 named...
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November 18, 2018
On this date in 1957, Alabama was bracing for another round of severe weather in the wake of tornadoes the...
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August 17, 2018
...THIS IS HISTORICAL INFORMATION FROM 1969 ABOUT HURRICANE CAMILLE, WHICH STRUCK ON THIS DATE IN 1969... Pete Wentzell was 10...
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June 19, 2018
On this date in 2002, the historic Durango and Silverton narrow gauge railroad was forced to stop operating because of...
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June 18, 2018
On the morning of Monday, June 18, 2001, it was evident that severe weather would occur over the Upper Mississippi...
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June 2, 2018
Welcome to the month in which both meteorological and astronomical summer both begin. In case you do not know what...
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April 15, 2018
Headlines on Sunday, April 15, 1956 talked about Democratic Presidential hopefuls Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver and their attacks on...
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April 10, 2018
Some of the finest weather throughout the year can be found during the month of April in Central Alabama, but...
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March 12, 2018
My memories from the Blizzard of 93 will more than likely be much different than what you read from the...
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March 12, 2018
As James stated in the beginning of his video, just where do you begin when remembering an event as historic...
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March 12, 2018
The March 1993 Superstorm is etched into my memory. I have always looked forward to snow events in Alabama since...
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March 12, 2018
Twenty-five years ago today, I was forecasting a storm of historic proportions. The morning forecast I prepared on Friday, March...
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March 12, 2018
This is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the historic storm that impacted Alabama and much of the eastern United States on...
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March 2, 2018
A transition time has arrived in Central Alabama, as we enter the month of March and the start of Meteorological...
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March 1, 2018
The crew at the National Weather Service in Birmingham has made dramatic strides over the past five years in leveraging...
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February 25, 2018
A historic snowstorm impacted the state of Alabama on this date in 2015. An intensifying surface low moving across the...
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February 25, 2018
Weather dominated the headlines on Sunday, February 25, 1934, as a major storm system affected much of the United States....
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February 5, 2018
February is the last month of meteorological winter, but astronomical winter doesn’t actually end until March 20th at 5:29 AM...
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December 28, 2017
At midnight on December 31, 1963, it was 31 degrees and cloudy at the Birmingham Airport with a light northeast...
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December 14, 2017
December 2010 was a very active month for severe weather across the country, with a total of 59 tornadoes touching...
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December 9, 2017
We had quite the spread of snowfall amounts from Friday's snow event, one in which overperformed what everyone was expecting....
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December 8, 2017
Where does today's snowstorm stack up in history at Birmingham in terms of one day December snow totals? It appears...
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December 3, 2017
The 1983 Iron Bowl game is one of the greatest in the history of the rivalry. It was played at...
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December 1, 2017
Welcome to the month of December, considered the start of "meteorological Winter," even though on the calendar the Winter Solstice...
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November 28, 2017
Monday, November 28th, 2005, turned out to be a relatively stormy day across Central Alabama, as a grand total of...
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November 23, 2017
An unusually moist and warm air mass combined with a strong storm system brought severe weather to Alabama during a...
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November 23, 2017
Alabamians paid little attention to the weather forecast on Thanksgiving morning, November 23, 1950. The Birmingham News carried a lead...
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November 22, 2017
The weekend prior to Thanksgiving in 1992 ended up being a violent and deadly one as severe weather swept through...
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November 21, 2017
At the time, it was the worst siege of wet weather to hit the Los Angeles area in nearly 30...
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November 21, 2017
During the evening hours on November 21, 1985, a weak category 2 Hurricane Kate made landfall on the shores of...
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November 20, 2017
The afternoon and evening hours of November 20, 1900, turned out to be a very costly one across portions of...
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November 1, 2017
November is considered a "transition month" between fall and winter across much of the country, and Central Alabama is no...
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October 6, 2017
We constantly struggle to communicate a hurricane's impacts and uncertainty. One of our main tools is the "cone of uncertainty"....
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September 10, 2017
Today is the 57th anniversary of Hurricane Donna striking the Florida Keys, which has eerie similarities to Irma. Donna made...
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September 9, 2017
Land interaction with Cuba is critical in determining how much Irma weakens or doesn't weaken overnight after making a landfall...
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August 27, 2017
It was a beautiful morning along the Gulf Coast on Saturday, August 27, 2005. But weather reports were becoming frightening....
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August 17, 2017
Sarah from Birmingham read the Hurricane Camille stories today and decided to share her own. Hey Bill! I was 18...
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August 17, 2017
THIS IS HISTORIC INFORMATION ABOUT 1969's HURRICANE CAMILLE FROM 1969... On the afternoon of August 17, 1969, an Air Force...
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August 17, 2017
...THIS IS HISTORICAL INFORMATION FROM 1969 ABOUT HURRICANE CAMILLE, WHICH STRUCK ON THIS DATE IN 1969... Pete Wentzell was 10...
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August 14, 2017
Here is a day by day look back at the life of Hurricane Camille, which formed during this week in...
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August 13, 2017
On this date in 2007, the high at the Birmingham Airport reached 103F setting a record for the date. It...
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August 13, 2017
”We have met our Andrew,” said Charlotte County Emergency Manager Wayne Sallade after Category Four Hurricane Charley made landfall near...
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August 6, 2017
On this date in 2012, the media carried stories about a preventable weather tragedy that occurred at the Pocono Speedway...
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July 24, 2017
It’s been a long time since the summer of 1980, but as a meteorologist serving in the National Weather Service...
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July 23, 2017
On this date in 2004, FEMA announced the results of its multi-agency Hurricane Pam simulation. Eerily, many of the predictions...
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July 18, 2017
This Meteorology 101 post was inadvertently suggested by WeatherBrains' panelist Rick Smith, who posted a tweet about lightning, lighting, and...
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July 17, 2017
During the overnight hours of July 16, 1987, and into the early morning hours of July 17th, South Central Texas...
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July 12, 2017
Headlines on Saturday, July 12, 1980, focused on the Iranian hostage crisis, which was in its 292nd day, The GOP...
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July 11, 2017
By Bill Murray The Alabama Weather Blog When you think about Kansas and natural disasters, you naturally think about tornadoes,...
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July 11, 2017
It was approaching the 3 o'clock hour on a Saturday afternoon, and a crowd was attending a circus that has...
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July 10, 2017
At 4:05 p.m., At 4:05 p.m., L’Express Flight 508 took off from New Orleans International Airport bound for Mobile. The...
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July 10, 2017
Shortly after 5PM on July 10, 1926, a storm was passing over the town of Lake Denmark in northern New...
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July 9, 2017
On the afternoon of July 9, 1982, I was in Mobile visiting the public library and my friend Keith Blackwell....
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July 9, 2017
On this date in 2005, Brian Peters and I were sitting in Gulf Shores, Alabama as Hurricane Dennis bore down...
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July 6, 2017
The town of Pomeroy, Iowa was a prosperous, thriving place in 1893. In the middle of the flat, Iowa prairie,...
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July 5, 2017
On the evening of July 4, 1985, a crowd off 44,947 people showed up for the game between the Atlanta...
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June 26, 2017
On the evening of June 26, 1957, residents of southwestern Louisiana were tracking a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico....
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June 25, 2017
On the afternoon of June 25, 1957, the Weather Bureau in New Orleans was tracking newly developed Hurricane Audrey in...
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June 19, 2017
On this date in 1972, Hurricane Agnes moved ashore in the Florida panhandle as a weak Category 1 storm. The...
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May 31, 2017
We have a lot of sayings that apply in weather. You’ve probably heard most of them like, it’s not the...
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May 27, 2017
It was an extremely active end to the month of May of 1973 across a large part of the United...
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May 1, 2017
So how about a little quiz to stimulate the brain cells? It’s rapidly approaching, and yet we’ve already had one,...
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April 26, 2017
By James Spann (posted from medium.com/@spann) A small, short-lived tornado touched down in western Cullman County Saturday evening producing damage,...
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April 24, 2017
The Dixie Tornado Outbreak of 1908 turned out to be a deadly event across the south and eastern parts of...
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April 23, 2017
The headline of the New Orleans Times Picayune on April 23, 1927 screamed the words of Mississippi Governor Dennis Murphree:...
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April 20, 2017
Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia was visited by a significant severe weather outbreak on Tuesday, April 20, 1920. It was one...
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April 19, 2017
The largest recorded tornado outbreak in Illinois history occurred during the afternoon and evening hours of April 19, 1996. The...
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April 19, 2017
On April 19, 1951, the Standard Oil tanker ESSO Greensboro departed from Corpus Christi, Texas with a full load of...
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April 15, 2017
The big weather storyline for the year of 2011 in Alabama will be the Super Outbreak of April 27th, but...
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April 14, 2017
At 11:40PM, Fredrick Fleet, the lookout in the crow’s nest of the supposedly unsinkable RMS Titanic rang the bridge with...
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April 14, 2017
April 14, 1935 dawned as a beautiful spring Sunday across the Plains of Colorado and Kansas. Residents of the Plains...
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April 11, 2017
On the morning of April 11, 1965, warm, humid air was flowing northeastward into the Midwest ahead of a fast...
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April 10, 2017
At this hour thirty eight years ago, the Red River Valley of North Texas and southern Oklahoma was under siege....
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April 9, 2017
On this date in 1975: a total of 14-17 inches of rain fell in 48 hours across South Alabama, much...
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April 9, 2017
On April 9, 1953, Glenn Stout, head of meteorology and Don Staggs, a technician at the Illinois State Water Survey...
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April 8, 2017
April 8, 1998 was a day that defined our TV station, and to some degree, my career at the time....
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April 3, 2017
By Bill Murray The midpoint of his overnight shift at the National Weather Service Forecast Office on West Oxmoor Road...
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April 2, 2017
We take advance forecasts of severe weather for granted today, with up to a week of advance notice for big...
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April 2, 2017
On Monday, April 1, 1974, Mother Nature played a cruel April Fools' joke on Alabama. That morning, a warm and...
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March 27, 2017
An unbelievable series of events led to the deadliest commercial aviation accident in history on the island of Tenerife on...
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March 27, 2017
March 27, 1994 was Palm Sunday. I was a meteorologist at Channel 42 in Birmingham. The Chief Meteorologist was away...
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March 26, 2017
Today's guest post is from Dr. Chuck Doswell. He needs no introduction to those with an interest in severe weather,...
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March 21, 2017
We continue to look at stories from the March 21, 1932 tornado outbreak, which killed 315 Alabamians. It is the...
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March 21, 2017
Jack Latham's father was the Sunday School Superintendent at the Ebeneezer Baptist Church near Stanton, in Chilton County, near Plantersville....
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March 21, 2017
By mid-afternoon, the first wave of tornadoes was well underway over West Alabama. One of the biggest disasters of the...
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March 21, 2017
In March 1932, Columbiana, the county seat of Shelby County had a population of 1,180. It was a trading center...
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March 20, 2017
Headlines on the morning of Saturday, March 20, 1948 were dominated by the threat of communism. Secretary of State George...
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March 19, 2017
Record heat spreading across the southern United States is the biggest story in national weather on this last Sunday of...
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March 14, 2017
It had been an afternoon of severe weather across North Alabama, but the next day was expected to result in...
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March 13, 2017
If you are a regular reader of the blog, you might well qualify as a weather nerd - and this...
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March 12, 2017
On this date in 1993, we were waiting and watching as one of the most incredible and improbable winter storms...
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March 9, 2017
For over six years, meteorologists have been salivating at the promise of data from the new GOES satellite, which represents...
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March 9, 2017
Elba is the county seat of Coffee County, in South Alabama. It started out as a ferry on the Pea...
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March 8, 2017
On March 8, 2008, it finally snowed in Birmingham. A grand total of one tenth of an inch of snow...
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March 7, 2017
Ash Wednesday is the High Holy Day signifying the beginning of the Lenten period. Ash Wednesday in 1962 was on...
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March 6, 2017
In the Southeast US the tornado season has already begun. Many of the Southeast US states consider March, April, and...
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March 6, 2017
The headlines in early March 1967 were dominated by war news from Vietnam. President Johnson announced that he was going...
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March 5, 2017
On this date in 1963, voters trekked to the polls in great numbers to vote in the mayor’s race in...
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March 3, 2017
Many of us who are interested in weather can point to one or two events that really got led to...
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March 2, 2017
A transition time has arrived for Central Alabama, as we enter the month of March, and the start of Meteorological...
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February 25, 2017
February 20`5 was a cold month across Alabama with average temperatures for the month running some 8-10 degrees below normal....
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February 24, 2017
Our Resident Satellite Expert and General Man About Town Sheldon Kusselson has a trick for seeing snow in the mountains...
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February 23, 2017
The tornado that struck Tuscaloosa on February 23, 1975 just before 3 p.m. CST was not only the strongest tornado...
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February 21, 2017
The morning of Sunday, February 21, 1971 was a sleepy one across the Delta of Mississippi, a flat expanse of...
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February 19, 2017
The U.S. Army Signal Corps was in charge of collecting weather observations and producing storm warnings in 1884. The weather...
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February 16, 2017
Just before dawn on Thursday morning, February 16, 1995, thunderstorms were sweeping across North and Central Alabama. The National Weather...
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February 12, 2017
On February 13, 1899, one of the coldest airmasses ever observed in the U.S. made it all the way to...
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February 12, 2017
On Monday, February 12, 1945, the front pages of newspapers around the country were dominated by reports from the different...
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February 6, 2017
I am excited to be contributing my library of Weather 101 stories to the blog. Look for a couple of...
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February 5, 2017
What is the greatest song of your generation? The song that made you think, or was an instrument of change?...
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February 1, 2017
One of the worst winter storms in Alabama history moved into the northwestern part of the state during the early...
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January 30, 2017
Early on the morning of Friday, January 28, 1966, cold high pressure covered Alabama and the Deep South. The morning...
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January 29, 2017
On January 18, 1936, a swarm of tornadoes ripped across parts of Alabama. Four people died as an F2 tornado...
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January 27, 2017
Our beloved mentor, colleague and weather rock star J.B. Elliott was the master of the weather story. His pen was...
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October 19, 2016
As you know in Central Alabama, our primary severe weather season is in the Spring during the months of March,...
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October 1, 2016
While I was attending the annual NWA Meeting in Norfolk, Virginia, back in September, one of the subjects that was...
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September 25, 2016
Saturday was another extremely hot day across Central Alabama with all locations in the upper 90s and a couple of...
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June 19, 2016
On this date in 1972, Hurricane Agnes moved ashore in the Florida panhandle as a weak Category 1 storm. The...
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April 26, 2016
This is a guest essay from a native Alabamian now living in Texas. ------------------------------------------------------------------- I didn’t sense any danger on...
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April 24, 2016
- Special to the AlabamaWX Blog by Sheldon Kusselson
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April 11, 2016
Miss the big annual spotter training? Here are the sessions. Part one features the basic training from Brian Peters... part...
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April 3, 2016
We all miss our mentor and friend, J.B. Elliott, especially on a day like today, a red letter day in...
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March 27, 2016
On Palm Sunday, March 27, 1994, an EF-4 tornado struck the Goshen United Methodist Church, north of Piedmont, killing 20...
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March 12, 2016
Below is a post the late, great J.B. Elliott put on the blog in 2007, which really sums up the...
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February 13, 2016
On February 13, 1899, one of the coldest airmasses ever observed in the U.S. made it all the way to...
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February 12, 2016
Snow affected the northern portions of the Outer Banks on Friday, making the tan colored sands of the North Carolina...
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December 20, 2015
Did some digging through the books this morning... here are the top ten warmest Christmas Days since 1900 at Birmingham......
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December 19, 2015
I get so many questions about this winter with people seeing all kind of wild reports on TV and the...
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December 16, 2015
On December 16, 2000... an EF4 tornado tore through the southern part of Tuscaloosa, killing eleven people and injuring over...
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December 8, 2015
There are some that believe it has always been cold, and should be cold at Christmas in Alabama, and something...
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November 23, 2015
Alabamians paid little attention to the weather forecast on Thanksgiving morning, November 23, 1950. The Birmingham News carried a lead...
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August 17, 2015
THIS IS HISTORICAL INFORMATION ON HURRICANE CAMILLE FROM 1969 Pete Wentzell was 10 years old. He lived in Biloxi, in...
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August 16, 2015
On this date in 1969, National Hurricane Center Director Bob Simpson knew that he had a big problem. There was...
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July 12, 2015
Headlines on Saturday, July 12, 1980 focused on the Iranian hostage crisis, which was in its 292nd day, The GOP...
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June 7, 2015
On the morning of Thursday, June 7, 1984, weather maps showed a major trough of low pressure across the western...
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June 6, 2015
As German soldiers peered out from their bunkers along the French coast on the morning of June 5, 1944, they...
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June 5, 2015
The 305 foot tall Teton Dam designed to provide tremendous benefit to the farmers and residents of the Snake River...
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May 31, 2015
The El Reno, Oklahoma Tornado occurred on this date two years ago. It was a game changer for storm chasers....
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May 29, 2015
Portland, OR was a major shipbuilding during World War II. As many as 100,000 people were employed in the shipyards....
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May 27, 2015
They are just that. Scary clouds. Several people around The Summit have been observing menacing looking funnel like clouds to...
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May 27, 2015
On Sunday night, May 27, 1973, I saw serious tornado damage for the first time in my life, and it...
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April 26, 2015
On this day 24 years ago, an F5 tornado devastated the community of Andover, Kansas, in a violent tornado outbreak...
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April 25, 2015
Photo from @UAHSWIRLL In 2002, a WSR-74C radar was donated to the University of Alabama – Huntsville. The radar is...
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March 15, 2015
It is official! Just under three inches of snow fell late this afternoon and evening at Boston's Logan Airport, surpassing...
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March 7, 2015
Ash Wednesday is the High Holy Day signifying the beginning of the Lenten period. Ash Wednesday in 1962 was on...
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February 25, 2015
The snow line is working its way south and east at this hour and is into western and northern Jefferson...
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February 14, 2015
This is a great piece from Rick Smith, one of our WeatherBrains hosts, who is also the Warning Coordination Meteorologist...
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January 26, 2015
On the morning of January 26, 1940, Alabama and the Deep South were in the deep freeze. And had been...
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January 25, 2015
The January thaw is a weather singularity. A singularity is an event that occurs more often than one would expect...
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November 23, 2014
Alabamians paid little attention to the weather forecast on Thanksgiving morning, November 23, 1950. The Birmingham News carried a lead...
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July 27, 2014
In July 1943, tracking hurricanes was a difficult business. Fewer ships were at sea because of the threat of German...
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July 12, 2014
Headlines on Saturday, July 12, 1980 focused on the Iranian hostage crisis, which was in its 292nd day. One of...
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June 9, 2014
On this date in 1972, the Rapid City flood devastated much of the South Dakota city. The disaster occurred after...
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May 4, 2014
On the morning of May 4, 2007, it was evident that an outbreak of severe weather was imminent across the...
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March 29, 2014
Hoyt Watts awakened around 5:35 a.m. on the morning of March 29, 1991 in his home on Highway 21 in...
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March 27, 2014
A series of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes moved across Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. These storms accounted...
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March 16, 2014
As a Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador, AlabamaWX is committed to keeping people informed of any initiative which will better prepare them...
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March 15, 2014
Many people were enjoying a Saturday night out on the town on this date in 1941. It was a chance...
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March 8, 2014
On this date in 1998, three days of heavy rain sent floodwaters from Beaver Dam Creek churning through the small...
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March 2, 2014
Back on this date in 2012, Alabama was included in a Moderate Risk severe weather outlook from the Storm Prediction...
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March 2, 2014
New York City’s Central Park has only experienced four winter seasons with 60 or more inches of snow. It was...
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March 1, 2014
March came in like a lion across the South on this date in 2009 as a strong upper low spread...
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March 1, 2014
March roared in like a lion on this date in 2007 across the Deep South as a powerful storm system...
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February 23, 2014
Weather maps on the morning of Sunday, February 23, 1975 showed a low pressure system over North Central Mississippi. The...
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February 16, 2014
Two significant snowstorms have been sufficient to push Birmingham's 2013-14 snow season into he top 12 all time. Will we...
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February 4, 2014
From the NWS Birmingham.... JANUARY 2014 RANKED IN THE TOP 5 COLDEST MONTHS FOR BIRMINGHAM, MONTGOMERY, TUSCALOOSA, AND ANNISTON. THESE...
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January 28, 2014
Roads/bridges/overpasses are becoming extremely dangerous due to icing across Central Alabama, generally south of a line from Eutaw to Columbiana...
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January 26, 2014
On the morning of January 26, 1940, Alabama and the Deep South were in the deep freeze and had been...
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January 25, 2014
On the morning of January 25, 1940, the headlines on the Birmingham Age-Herald screamed that more cold was in store...
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January 12, 2014
A powerful cold front moved through on Saturday, January 9, 1982, sending temperatures plummeting. The high on Saturday was 49F,...
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January 5, 2014
With all the talk about the upcoming wintry weather event, I thought we might shift gears for a moment and...
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December 30, 2013
Greg Carbin will be the Guest WeatherBrain tonight on the weekly netcast that is all about weather! We will be...
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December 30, 2013
Here is my look back at the top weather events of 2013. Make sure to chime in with your memories,...
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December 30, 2013
Here is my annual list of the top weather events in the U.S. this year: 1. El Reno Tornado: Massive...
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December 16, 2013
On December 16, 2000... an F4 tornado tore through the southern part of Tuscaloosa, killing eleven people and injuring over...
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November 30, 2013
The North Atlantic Hurricane Season officially ends today. There were thirteen named storms, but only two hurricanes this year in...
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November 17, 2013
November 17, 1957 was a Sunday. Newspaper headlines chronicled a deadly crash of the New york Central passenger train, The...
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October 19, 2013
At 08:01 GMT (3:01 a.m. CDT) on October 19, 2005, Air Force Hurricane Hunters measured a central pressure of 884...
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October 3, 2013
Media coverage at the National Hurricane Center in Miami in usually intense during any landfalling United States hurricane. But on...
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September 16, 2013
At 51 minutes after midnight on 16 September 2004, the northern eyewall of powerful Hurricane Ivan (see landfall ) moved...
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September 9, 2013
On September 3, 1919, a hurricane was detected in the Caribbean. Forecasters at the U.S. Weather Bureau had no idea...
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August 24, 2013
On this date in 1992, Hurricane Andrew made landfall in southern Dade County Florida near Homestead around 5am. The storm...
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August 19, 2013
Farewell to a valuable set of eyes 22,300 miles above us! GOES-12, the weather satellite launched in July, 2001 by...
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August 17, 2013
I remember this date 44 years ago very vividly. It is one of my, if not my earliest weather memories....
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August 10, 2013
Isle Derniere, or Last Island, was a tiny resort on the Lousiana coast, about 110 miles southwest of New Orleans....
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July 20, 2013
The weather forecast for Johnstown, PA on July 19, 1977 called for a 30 percent chance of thundershowers. Forecasters knew...
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July 14, 2013
Heat wave deaths were soaring nationally on this date in 1980. The national death toll stood at 495. Alabama was...
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July 6, 2013
The high on Friday was 75F at the Shuttlesworth Birmingham International Airport. It was only the 81st time in 113...
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June 4, 2013
Info from NWS, Norman, OK on the EF-5 rating assigned today to the El Reno tornado... FACTS • El Reno...
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May 27, 2013
Last night, J.B. and I traveled to Brent for a special Sunday evening service at the Brent Baptist Church. Brent...
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May 23, 2013
A Good Way to Never Shiver Again It was a quiet day at NWS at 11 West Oxmoor Road. That...
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May 22, 2013
Steve Jones of AlabamaQuake.com supplied the following piece of interesting seismic history today: "At 3:11 pm (19:11 UTC) on the...
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May 22, 2013
On this date in 1928, a 45 minute long barrage of hen’s egg to baseball sized hail struck Pickens County...
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May 5, 2013
On Saturday, May 5, 1945, newspaper headlines carried stories about the pending Allied victory in Europe in World War II....
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May 4, 2013
On the morning of May 4, 2007, it was evident that an outbreak of severe weather was imminent across the...
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April 27, 2013
Photo from Tommy Mosley I often wish I was a writer, like Rick Bragg. But, God chose not to give...
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April 14, 2013
Headlines on Sunday, April 15, 1956 talked about Democratic Presidential hopefuls Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver and their attacks on...
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April 8, 2013
An EF-5 tornado tore through the western suburbs of Birmingham, killing 32 people, and injuring over 250 others in places...
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April 4, 2013
SMITHFIELD TORNADO: The tornado began around 3 pm CST, 4 miles northwest of Birmingham near U.S. Highway 78, and then...
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April 3, 2013
At the time it was the greatest outbreak of tornadoes on record in the U.S. The famous “superoutbreak” of tornadoes...
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March 30, 2013
Pictures on the front page of the Birmingham News on Friday, March 30, 1962 showed the Cuban trial of participants...
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March 17, 2013
Elba is the county seat of Coffee County, in South Alabama. It started out as a ferry on the Pea...
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March 12, 2013
Alabama's greatest snow storm on record... the Blizzard of 1993 started. From Friday afternoon, March 12, 1993, through Saturday morning,...
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March 11, 2013
The great Blizzard of 1993... March 12-13, 1993. Officially 13 inches of snow at Birmingham... some places had closer to...
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March 1, 2013
March came in like a lion across the South on this date in 2009 as a strong upper low spread...
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February 25, 2013
Weather dominated the headlines on Sunday, February 25, 1934 as a major storm system affected much of the United States. ...
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February 23, 2013
Weather maps on the morning of Sunday, February 23, 1975 showed a low pressure system over North Central Mississippi. The...
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February 21, 2013
On the morning of Sunday, February 21, 1971, a surface low was over Central Texas near Waco. The low had...
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February 14, 2013
February 14, 1958 was a Friday night. Snow lovers got a special gift as the heaviest snowfall since 1948 blanketed...
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February 9, 2013
Headlines this morning in the Weather Department are all about the snowstorm in the Northeast. Forty four years ago today,...
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February 2, 2013
On Friday, February 1, 1985, the forecasts were dire for the Birmingham area and much of Central Alabama. It was...
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January 29, 2013
Here is a late evening look at our developing severe weather situation. As the high resolution models have been hinting...
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January 23, 2013
Eleven tornadoes touched down during the pre-dawn hours across North-Central Alabama, killing one man in Oak Grove, and a teenage...
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January 20, 2013
On this date in 1961, the second of three major nor'easters that occurred during the winter of 1960-61 was moving...
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January 19, 2013
Bringing together the ingredients for snow in Central Alabama is difficult. Even when the ingredients look to be coming together,...
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January 19, 2013
On this date in 1977, the virtually unthinkable happened. It snowed in Miami. Actual snowflakes flying in the air at...
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January 17, 2013
We have a report that Adamsville Police have shut down their roads because of hazardous conditions. Hoover Schools were holding...
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January 12, 2013
A powerful cold front moved through Birmingham on Saturday, January 9, 1982, sending temperatures plummeting. The high on Saturday was...
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January 1, 2013
Here is my list of the top Alabama weather events of 2012. 10. Construction Started on National Water Center; Construction...
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January 1, 2013
As we turn the page from 2012 to 2013, I thought it would be a good time to look back...
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December 23, 2012
On this date in 1989, an epic cold wave was diving south to the Gulf Coast. On the left side...
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November 25, 2012
Forecasts for Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1950, had warned of an approaching cold wave from the Ohio Valley into the...
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November 24, 2012
On this date in 2001, thirty six tornadoes touched down on a Saturday in Alabama, setting a record for the...
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November 15, 2012
Around 4:30 pm on Wednesday, November 15, 1989, a tornado touched down near Madkin Mountain on Redstone Arsenal, southwest of...
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November 11, 2012
It starts as a wisp of white cloud on the horizon of a blue sky. A thin line of blue-gray...
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November 11, 2012
Monday, November 11, 1940 was Armistice Day, the remembrance of the symbolic end of World War I. On the 22nd...
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November 10, 2012
On this date in 2002, an unusually widespread and strong late season outbreak of severe weather struck from Louisiana to...
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October 31, 2012
In October 1997, emergency management officials in Westchester County, New York ran a hurricane simulation for their area. The fictional...
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October 20, 2012
On this date in 1991, red flag conditions existed in the Bay Area of Northern California, signifying a very high...
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September 22, 2012
On the morning of September 22, 1975, residents along the Alabama and Northwest Florida Gulf Coast were preparing for a...
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September 21, 2012
On September 10, 1989, a tropical depression formed in the far eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands. For the...
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September 16, 2012
Hurricane Ivan arrived in Alabama... below is some of the live coverage that day from ABC 33/40... Hurricane Ivan -...
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September 1, 2012
The NWS Hydrometeorological Prediction Center issued an advisory this morning on what is left of Isaac. Isaac has now lost...
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July 16, 2012
On this date in 1980, the death toll across the Alabama from an extended heat wave reached 77 and it...
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July 15, 2012
Headlines on the Birmingham News on Tuesday, July 15, 1980 said that Federal relief was being sought as heat deaths...
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July 14, 2012
On this date in 1980, heat wave deaths were soaring nationally and in Alabama as a powerful heat wave held...
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June 29, 2012
A release from UAH this afternoon. A very, very good read. Do recent hot summers (and 100 degrees today) signal...
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June 27, 2012
On the evening of June 26, 1957, residents of southwestern Louisiana were tracking a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico....
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June 17, 2012
One of the weakest tornadoes of 1978 was also its deadliest. It's an example of how all tornadoes deserve our...
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June 9, 2012
On this date in 2001, the remnants of Tropical Storm Allison had passed Houston three days earlier headed inland. But...
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June 9, 2012
On June 7, 1953, an area of high pressure developed over much of the Northern United States. This high-pressure air...
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June 8, 2012
On the morning of Thursday, June 7, 1984, weather maps showed a major trough of low pressure across the western...
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June 6, 2012
As German soldiers peered out from their bunkers along the French coast on the morning of June 5, 1944, they...
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May 27, 2012
Image courtesy of John Brasher, who maintains an excellent blog on the tornado. May 27, 1973 is a red letter...
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May 24, 2012
What is the single most important development in the history of tornado forecasting and warning? Would it be Fawbush and...
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May 22, 2012
Weather often is a contributing factor in plane crashes. But investigation sometimes reveals something beyond the obvious. News stories on...
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May 11, 2012
On this date, one of the deadliest tornadoes in the history of Texas struck Waco in the late afternoon. The...
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May 7, 2012
Friend of the blog Chuck Biddinger captured this incredible photo of rising water outside the famed Krispy Kreme store in...
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May 6, 2012
My first recollected memory of a tornado came on May 6, 1967. I was five and we lived on Norwood...
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May 5, 2012
From Tim Marshall The costliest hailstorm in United States history struck the Dallas/Ft. Worth area on this date in 1995....
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May 4, 2012
On the morning of May 4, 2007, it was evident that an outbreak of severe weather was imminent across the...
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May 3, 2012
On May 3, 1999, forecasters at the Storm Prediction Center faced an uncertain situation. They knew that severe weather was...
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April 27, 2012
We have posted all of the video elements that were on our "Remembering April 27" special tonight on ABC 33/40,...
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April 26, 2012
I took this picture in Pleasant Grove April 28, 2011, as I was getting ready to a live report on...
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April 26, 2012
We were getting ready for what turned out to be a generational tornado outbreak. ABC 33/40 will have a one...
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April 24, 2012
From our Pal Jim Stefkovich at the NWS Birmingham: On Thursday, April 26, 2012, the National Weather Service in Birmingham...
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April 23, 2012
The gentleman who took what I think is one of the definitive pictures of the April 27th outbreak will be...
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April 15, 2012
Headlines on Sunday, April 15, 1956 talked about Democratic Presidential hopefuls Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver and their attacks on...
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April 14, 2012
April 14, 1935 dawned as a beautiful spring Sunday across the Plains of Colorado and Kansas southward into Texas. Residents...
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April 11, 2012
This was the radar loop around 700 pm on March 31, when a hailstorm came across my location at Bluff...
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April 10, 2012
Today is the 33 anniversary of the F4 tornado that ripped a path of destruction through Wichita Falls, Texas on...
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April 9, 2012
On April 9, 1953, Glenn Stout, head of meteorology and Don Staggs, a technician at the Illinois State Water Survey...
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April 3, 2012
Today is the 38th anniversary of one of the greatest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history. The disaster prompted many improvements...
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April 1, 2012
Image courtesy of Mike Wilhelm's excellent BamaWX.com blog. Link to his story on the event. On Monday, April 1, 1974,...
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March 21, 2012
(policlimate.com) The above map shows temperature anomalies (degrees above or below normal) over the USA and Canada yesterday. Notice the...
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March 17, 2012
The U.S. Army Signal Corps began taking weather observations and issuing warnings to mariners in November 1870. In 1877, a...
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March 12, 2012
Nineteen years ago today... the great Blizzard of 1993. Officially 13 inches of snow at Birmingham, but some of the...
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February 24, 2012
A long time friend and blog reader, Wally Coker, has been keeping 1-minute resolution observations at his house in Clay,...
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February 17, 2012
ABC 33/40 Skywatcher Mike Wilhelm maintains a fantastic blog at bamawx.com. He penned a great story yesterday on the Anniversary...
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February 13, 2012
...FOR JAMES' FULL FORECAST SCROLL DOWN A LITTLE... Radar shows the beginnings of a large mass of precipitation moving into...
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February 13, 2012
On February 13, 1899, one of the coldest airmasses ever observed in the U.S. made it all the way to...
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February 12, 2012
The front pages of newspapers around the country were dominated by reports from the different theatres of World War II...
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January 29, 2012
On January 18, 1936, a swarm of tornadoes ripped across parts of Alabama. Four people died as an F2 tornado...
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January 28, 2012
The Winewood neighborhood in Center Point suffered damage in the EF3 tornado early Monday morning. Tim Carr sent a link...
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January 12, 2012
A powerful cold front moved through Alabama on Saturday, January 9, 1982, sending temperatures plummeting. The high on Saturday at...
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January 9, 2012
Quite a different weather situation as Alabama was snow covered... these are images from our viewers and readers from the...
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December 31, 2011
I usually write a review of the top U.S. and Alabama weather events for each year. But my heart just...
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December 23, 2011
No White Christmas this year, but I thought I would share these photos from across Alabama taken on Christmas Day...
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December 19, 2011
As most of you know, some of the most amazing clouds most of us have ever seen moved across downtown...
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December 13, 2011
(Photo by Ronald Hughes, Coker, AL) Why is it that we differentiate between a "frost" and a "freeze"? How...
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November 27, 2011
Above is a loop of 500 mb heights (lines) and vorticity (colors) over the next 36 hours. You can see...
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November 11, 2011
Check out the above infrared satellite imagery from 1000 GMT (4:00 am CST) this morning. Infrared imagery detects the...
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November 10, 2011
It was 36 years ago today when the ore boat Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a violent storm in eastern Lake...
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November 9, 2011
This visible satellite picture was taken at 415 pm CST, around the time Chad Gardner of Courtesy Buick (white spot...
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October 31, 2011
Several people have mentioned to me how cold it has been this October. And it has. Assuming we reach a...
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October 13, 2011
The days are getting shorter here, but they are really getting shorter in the Arctic regions of Alaska and northern...
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October 8, 2011
Legend has it that the fire was caused by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. The official investigation by the Chicago Fire Department...
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September 27, 2011
A violent tornado was moving through Tuscaloosa, where 51 would die. A total of 63 tornadoes touched down statewide killing...
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September 24, 2011
It was just thirteen days after the 9-11 terrorist attack on America back in 2001. Concern was very high that...
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September 15, 2011
Wind speed and direction. Notice the wind always blows out of the sloughs (from the north on most, from the...
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September 5, 2011
Alabama’s all-time record heat wave was at its height on this date in 1925. Birmingham was recording its third of...
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September 3, 2011
The headline on the Thursday, September 3, 1925 edition of the self proclaimed “South’s Greatest Newspaper,” The Birmingham News, moaned...
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August 29, 2011
At 6:10 a.m. CDT on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in southern Plaquemines Parish Louisiana, just south of...
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August 28, 2011
As Hurricane Katrina intensified rapidly and reached Category Five status on this date six years ago, the National Weather Service...
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August 28, 2011
Just after midnight on this date in 2005, Air Force reconnaissance found 145 mph sustained winds in Hurricane Katrina. It...
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August 23, 2011
Since we're all looking at Hurricane Irene, a storm that looks like it will affect the eastern seaboard and not...
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August 21, 2011
Ten years after Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida, the National Hurricane Center announced on this date in 2002...
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August 20, 2011
The largest forest fire in American history was burning three million acres in two days across northern Idaho and western...
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August 14, 2011
Tropical Storm Camille formed near the island of Grand Cayman on the morning of August 14, 1969. From the beginning,...
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August 13, 2011
”We have met our Andrew,” said Charlotte County Emergency manager Wayne Sallade after Category Four Hurricane Charley made landfall near...
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August 4, 2011
After strong storms developed right around sunset in Tennessee, then moved south into north Alabama, producing wind gusts up to...
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August 2, 2011
The obvious answer, of course, is that it is August in Alabama! But, there are things going on in the...
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July 31, 2011
Big Thompson Canyon is one of the most scenic areas of Colorado. An hour west of Denver, US-34 runs right...
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July 25, 2011
The State of Alabama was in the midst of a critical heat wave and drought at this time during 1952....
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July 23, 2011
Photo from U.S. Coast Guard On this date in 2004, FEMA announced the results of its multi-agency Hurricane Pam simulation....
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July 21, 2011
Here in Trussville (TSV in radar picture), as the thunderstorms moved to our west just before sunset last night,...
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July 17, 2011
On Thursday, July 17, 1980, the Birmingham News carried the sad headline that much beloved Auburn former head football coach...
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July 11, 2011
Take a look at the balloon data from NWS BMX this morning: The red line is temperature, and the green...
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June 24, 2011
(Geochron-style image of sun's illumination of earth today at noon CDT, from Sun Clock software by mapmaker.com) Summer officially arrived...
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June 11, 2011
Photo courtesy of USGS On this date in 2008, city leaders in Waterloo, Iowa were confident that their flood protection...
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June 11, 2011
Photo courtesy of NOAA On June 5, 2001, ship, buoy and recon reports indicated that a tropical storm had formed...
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June 7, 2011
Since many people move to our wonderful state every year, and I have not written one of these in years,...
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June 4, 2011
It was on this date in 1944 that Allied Supreme Commander Eisenhower made the decision to postpone the long-awaited invasion...
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May 27, 2011
It was late afternoon on a Sunday on May 27, 1973 and a major weather tragedy was about to unfold...
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May 16, 2011
This spanish speaking family is lucky to be alive as the tornado passed so close to their apartment complex in...
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May 9, 2011
PNSBMX ALZ011>015-017>050-110000- PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...CORRECTED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 835 PM CDT MON MAY 9 2011 ...APRIL SEVERE WEATHER...
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May 7, 2011
A significant flooding event struck Central Alabama in this date in 2003. Around 1:30 p.m., torrential rains caused flash flooding...
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May 6, 2011
Please scroll down to see the "hail stick" photo and post by Jason Simpson...seems very logical to me. Now that...
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April 29, 2011
(Click on image to get much larger picture) The streaks occur because most or all of the trees are down...
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April 28, 2011
In case you didn't see it, here is our live coverage of the tornado as it approached and moved through...
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April 9, 2011
Perry Williams is a weather enthusiast who lives in Newnan, Georgia. He keeps a close eye on the weather on...
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April 8, 2011
It was a day that defined our TV station, and to some degree, my career. Our policy of aggressive, long...
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April 4, 2011
Today marks the 34th anniversary of the deadly Smithfield Tornado that struck northern sections of Birmingham on April 4, 1977....
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April 3, 2011
This story is taken from publisher C.F. Boone's The Alabama Tornadoes, one of a series of photo story books that...
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April 3, 2011
It started 37 years ago tonight... and lasted into the early morning hours of April 4, 1974. Our own J.B....
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April 2, 2011
On the morning of April 2, 1974, Mr. Robert Ferry, the Meteorologist in Charge of the National Weather Service Forecast...
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March 28, 2011
Last night was a rare setup across Alabama, with a shallow layer of cold, stable air near the surface, and warm, unstable...
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March 23, 2011
It is a windy day across Alabama, due to the fairly large pressure gradient in place between high pressure to...
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March 23, 2011
Many of us who are interested in weather can point to one or two events that really got led to...
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March 22, 2011
This is part 2 of a blog I started on the physics of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. A...
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March 21, 2011
Please be sure to follow all the links to previous stories we have written on AlabamaWx.com about this infamous disaster....
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March 19, 2011
On this date in 1963, an Eastern Airlines flight between New York and Washington encountered an electrical storm. Passengers reported...
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March 14, 2011
First of all, we must not forget the human tragedy that has occurred in Japan. However, there is a lot...
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March 12, 2011
On the evening of Friday, March 12, 1993, a mix of snow, sleet and rain was falling across North and...
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March 11, 2011
In 1993, I was the relief meteorologist for Channel 42 here in Birmingham. On Monday, March 8th, the Chief Meteorologist,...
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March 8, 2011
A Flash Flood Watch is in effect for most of Alabama from midnight tonight through tomorrow evening, and a Flood...
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March 6, 2011
The headlines in early March 1967 were dominated by war news from Vietnam. President Johnson announced that he was going...
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March 5, 2011
On this date in 1963, voters trekked to the polls in great numbers to vote in the mayor’s race in...
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February 21, 2011
Upper air pattern on the morning of Sunday, February 21, 1971 showing large trough moving into the Plains states. On...
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February 19, 2011
Click image to view larger image. On this date in 1871, the War Department’s Signal Service issued the first official...
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February 19, 2011
Click for larger image The U.S. Army Signal Corps was in charge of collecting weather observations and producing storm warnings...
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February 6, 2011
Ash Wednesday is the High Holy Day signifying the beginning of the Lenten period. Ash Wednesday in 1962 was on...
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February 5, 2011
Today is the third anniversary of the Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak. It is so called because it occurred on the...
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January 31, 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3c__YeKBsc (Video of thundersnow sent in by blog reader Gary from Framingham, Massachusetts) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtGrcL2RlVo&NR=1 (Video of thundersnow in Huntsville on...
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January 30, 2011
ON THIS DATE IN 1966: Alabama’s coldest temperature ever (-27F) was measured at New Market in Northeast Madison County about...
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January 29, 2011
A swarm of tornadoes ripped across parts of Alabama on January 18, 1936. Four people died as an F2 tornado...
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January 22, 2011
Someone recently asked the question, what is the dew point. I will try to answer that with my first attempt...
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January 20, 2011
Radar loop 1125 pm to 1226 am during snowstorm. HSV airport is white dot BHM SA 1050 W3X 1/16 TSW+BS...
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January 11, 2011
I posted a version of this late Sunday night, but since many didn't see it due to the late hour,...
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January 10, 2011
On this date in 1982: Birmingham and much of Alabama was in the deep freeze as an Arctic blast was...
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January 8, 2011
As I posted here a day or so ago, with any winter weather event, everybody has an opinion, like everyone...
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January 8, 2011
Writing this late Saturday morning, about 30 hours prior to the expected beginning of a significant winter storm for Alabama....
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January 8, 2011
I get many questions about the terms we use in our daily discussions... and we should mention, we do these...
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January 8, 2011
It has been a while since a widespread snowfall has been forecast this far in advance with fairly high confidence...
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January 8, 2011
A Winter Storm Watch is in effect for Sunday afternoon through Monday morning for much of Alabama. There is the...
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January 7, 2011
See this meteogram for Birmingham... snow accumulation from model output. Note that we have three model runs 7 to 11...
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December 24, 2010
All good boys and girls should be nestled all snug in their beds, you know... but weather weenies can't sleep...
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December 24, 2010
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 936 PM CST FRI DEC 24 2010 ...A GOOD CHANCE...
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December 23, 2010
First of all, the consensus of the models indicates that the main southern stream disturbance we've been talking about is...
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December 22, 2010
Thanks to Billy Garner for this image... he writes... "The Brookwood Volunteer Fire Department, for the 3rd year in a...
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December 20, 2010
My first memory of Nash Roberts came in the summer of 1969... without my mom's knowledge I stay up all...
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December 16, 2010
It was like it happened yesterday. A warm balmy day, nine days before Christmas in 2000. The account below is...
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December 15, 2010
...See James' complete forecast below... Clearly, the rain was just heavy enough this morning, and the air was just dry...
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December 13, 2010
The above balloon data from NWS Birmingham at 5 pm last evening show the extremely cold air in the lower...
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December 12, 2010
Convective snow showers (caused by moisture and instability, similar to summer thunderstorms) continue over north and central Alabama this afternoon. Looking...
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December 12, 2010
Radar and satellite continue to indicate snow showers over north and central Alabama early this afternoon. These snow showers are...
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December 10, 2010
(GFS ensemble forecast 500 mb height charts for the northern Hemisphere, USA at bottom, Europe upside down at top, today...
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December 8, 2010
An area of light snow is moving across central and south Alabama right now on radar. This snow is associated...
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December 7, 2010
The above chart shows the trajectories of air between 3 am this morning and 3 pm tomorrow afternoon. Notice that...
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December 5, 2010
On this date in 1953, thirty eight people died when an F4 tornado slammed into the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi...
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November 27, 2010
I love Thanksgiving. It may be my favorite holiday. It is a time when everyone is home, including my college...
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November 24, 2010
The home-field advantage in college football depends a lot on crowd noise. When the opposing offense is on the field...
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November 23, 2010
The 1983 Iron Bowl game is one of the greatest in the history of the rivalry. It was played at...
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November 16, 2010
You've heard us meteorologists talk about rainfall caused by "overrunning", to the north of a front usually, for years. That's what...
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November 15, 2010
An EF-4 tornado roared through the southern part of Huntsville with no warning, plowing through businesses and heavily populated residential...
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October 24, 2010
This radar picture is from about 1048 pm, when near golf ball size hail was falling along the Warrior River...
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October 18, 2010
Yesterday afternoon, there was a rather large fire about 3 miles NW of our cabin on The Warrior River. The...
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October 12, 2010
James wanted to know if I would comment on a strange radar echo in Walker and Tuscaloosa Counties near the...
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October 12, 2010
First of all, see James' post below with all of the pictures of the red sunrise this morning. You've probably...
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September 29, 2010
We are now in autumn, with the sun south of the equator, the north pole dark, the south pole light,...
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September 13, 2010
Even as Hurricane Gustav was making landfall in Louisiana back in September 2008, Ike was springing to life as a...
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September 12, 2010
On the morning of Wednesday, September 12, 1979, preparations were underway along the Central Gulf Coast for extremely dangerous Hurricane...
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September 11, 2010
Radar image as Carla slowly approached the Texas coast on September 11, 1961 In September 1961, the memory of Hurricane...
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August 28, 2010
As Hurricane Katrina intensified rapidly and reached Category Five status that fateful Sunday, August 28 2005, forecaster Robert Ricks at...
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August 25, 2010
This is the Doppler velocity image from the NWS Birmingham radar (located at the white dot). It is showing something interesting. The...
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August 21, 2010
The largest forest fire in American history burned three million acres in two days on August 20-21, 1910 across northern...
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August 16, 2010
Wendy Hancock from Moody was not around when these pictures were taken by her mom from their home in Gulfport,...
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August 15, 2010
THIS IS HISTORICAL INFORMATION. IT IS NOT CURRENT. THE REMNANTS OF TD FIVE MAY REDEVELOP ON MONDAY OVER THE NORTHERN...
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August 15, 2010
On this date in 2007, Alabama was broiling in the midst of one of the state’s worst heat waves ever. ...
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August 15, 2010
THIS INFORMATION IS HISTORICAL - NOT CURRENT. THERE ARE NO TROPICAL STORMS IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN AT THIS TIME. Early...
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August 7, 2010
After weakening near Haiti and Jamaica, Hurricane Allen was again strengthening on this date in 1980. A minimum pressure of...
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July 2, 2010
After James and I pioneered the 50-mile roundtrip from Bluff Creek to Bankhead Lock and Dam in my 15' Manatee...
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June 21, 2010
Summer "officially" started with the solstice at 1128 GMT (6:28 AM CDT) this morning. The above geochron-style image (y'all know...
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June 7, 2010
If you were outside this weekend and today, you may have noticed how much nicer it feels outside today, due...
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May 24, 2010
The possibly sub-tropical low that JB posts about below, and a high pressure area in the Northeast, are bringing cool,...
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May 14, 2010
The time-lapse video (converted to animation) above was taken in San Antonio, Texas on February 18, 2008 by Steven Browne....
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May 1, 2010
....TORNADO WATCH NORTHWEST ALABAMA UNTIL 400 PM CDT... Take a look at the gravity waves moving through the clouds in...
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April 27, 2010
The posts written by Bill Murray and myself yesterday about "Dixie Alley" seem to have gotten some attention. You can...
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April 26, 2010
This blog is partially a response to Bill's blog about "Dixie Alley"; scroll down to see this very interesting article....
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April 18, 2010
This image of the volcanic ash plume being produced by the volcano in southern Iceland was taken by the MODIS...
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April 16, 2010
Here are 7 color MODIS satellite images of the Southeast US, showing the rapid greening that has taken place since...
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March 29, 2010
Those new to the blog may not have seen my "geochron" style maps of daylight on earth like the one...
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March 9, 2010
Birmingham's 10 coldest winters We all knew this was one of the coldest winters in a long time. In this...
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February 23, 2010
(December and January temperature departure from normal) James and I have talked about the Arctic Oscillation, or AO, quite a...
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February 11, 2010
**NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ISSUES WINTER STORM WARNING** **SEE JAMES' POSTS BELOW FOR DETAILS** In blog posts below from James, JB,...
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January 21, 2010
This is a time lapse of videos taken from VAST camera 0, a light-enhanced camera on the east side of...
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January 15, 2010
This table shows the 20 previously coldest 7-, 10-, and 14-day periods in BHM, according to average daily temperature, with...
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January 2, 2010
**DANGEROUSLY COLD AIR MOVING IN** See Bill's post below for details on possible snow Thursday. The cold air is arriving....
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December 23, 2009
Winds are already becoming a little gusty this afternoon, as a low pressure area develops over Texas. As pressures drop...
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November 6, 2009
With the days getting very short now (we're down to 10 hours and 40 minutes of daylight now, from 14...
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May 13, 2009
Andy Kula, a friend and great meteorologist at the NWS office in Huntsville brought this to my attention, so I...
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April 14, 2009
(Raw Doppler velocity image at 104 am CDT from NEXRAD. Areas of green scattered in the bright red indicate "folding",...
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February 27, 2009
Tornado warnings for Perry, Hale, Pickens and Tuscaloosa counties. Two gravity waves have or are in the process of interacting...
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February 11, 2009
(Time lapse at 8x normal speed, stratocumulus clouds along dryline, then dryline itself, at Smith Lake facing west.) Brian Peters...
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October 30, 2008
Temperatures are running about 5 degrees warmer this morning than yesterday morning, but much of Alabama will still drop near...
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July 30, 2008
During a quick trip to the Warrior River, right along the Walker/Jefferson County line yesterday, I was able to photograph...
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July 16, 2008
Area radars are lit up with many different phenomena this morning. Below is a still image from the Birmingham NEXRAD...
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July 10, 2008
We had a post roughly 3 weeks ago about the NWS radars picking up large numbers of insects flying at...
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July 9, 2008
Another day today when Trussville got heavy rain, but the airport has been fairly dry so far. 0.75" today, bringing...
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June 30, 2008
Jamie Sandford asked for a discussion of the physics of "heat bursts," a fascinating weather phenomenon that has been observed...
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April 14, 2008
Wow, it's cold outside for this time of year. Temperature check at Trussville around 1245 pm, during one of the...
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March 30, 2008
Cold-air damming, more commonly known as a "wedge", is one of the most interesting phenomena in dynamic meteorology to me....
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March 20, 2008
As James mentioned earlier, Spring officially started this morning at 12:48 am CDT, when the sun was directly over the...
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March 8, 2008
Check out this true-color image from the NASA Terra/MODIS satellite, taken as the satellite flew over the Louisiana Gulf Coast...
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March 7, 2008
A gravity wave formed near the back edge of the rain this morning. A narrow band of heavy rain, accompanied...
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February 16, 2008
As JB and Brian point out, there is a very strong cold front in Texas this afternoon. An old friend...
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February 13, 2008
The snow showers we've seen over much of Alabama this morning are a little bit like thunderstorms, in that they...
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January 20, 2008
Check out this high-resolution visible satellite picture, from the GHCC website in Huntsville, from 1431 UTC (8:31 am CST) this...
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August 15, 2007
Someone posed the question on the blog about why we've been seeing so much "blue", or low reflectivity return, on...
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November 1, 2006
I received this press release yesterday from UAH... this involves research done by our friend Tim Coleman on a subject...
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