Archive for February, 2011

This is the latest Day 2 outlook from the SPC in terms of the highest threat of severe weather on Monday.  There is a slight risk in tact for the northern 2/3rd’s of Alabama as well as northeast Mississippi and north Georgia.  The parameters are there for some isolated super cell convection along with the threat of tornadoes.  The tornadic threat will be prevalent with any cells that can form ahead of the line as well as cells embedded within the line.  Shear will weaken with time, but moisture is already outdoing the forecast and can overcome the shear values at times.  We will be updating with our chase target mapping for Monday morning when we plan to deploy as well as updating with our own risk graphics.  However, the SPC does mention the potential for higher probabilities and maybe significant probabilities in later outlooks as the features become more clear. 

Stay with us as we prepare for our first real chase of the 2011 storm season. 

We are watching a very strong storm system that is diving through the west and bringing some snow to very unique locations.  There is some discussion that the San Francisco Bay area may see snow and that is a VERY unusual occurrence.  This system is expected to swing out and be low amplitude and bring a potential severe weather outbreak to portions of the Mid-South and Ozarks tomorrow evening and night.  Monday looks to be our biggest threat.

This is our greatest threat area on Monday thus far.  This could be a little far east depending on timing, but this is the general idea of what we expect.  A line of thunderstorms along the cold front with the potential for a few rogue cells out ahead of the squall line with tornado potential.  With time during the late afternoon and evening on Monday….the surface pressures will begin to rise and the winds will veer southwest which will lessen low level shear some.  This in turn will lead to a less tornado threat with time.  It seems at this point that the best tornado threat may be confined north of 20/59 in Alabama and before 3pm.  However, there could be a strong tornado or two….and we can’t rule out a long tracker especially in the Tennessee Valley. 

This system has thrown a few curve balls in terms of the timing and strength on the model output so things can still change.  We will be monitoring the situation from the office thru Sunday night and then from the field.  There is the potential for this system to be more significant, but there are some things that need to line up for that to happen so we will keep the current wording. 

Stay tuned for future updates…and we have updated the chase status for late Sunday night into Monday to moderate.

I have a feeling this time tomorrow evening I will probably be sick for not making the trip out to Arkansas, but this is our tornado target product for tomorrow.  This is where we believe the highest potential for a strong, long tracked tornado may be during the afternoon and evening hours across portions of AR/LA/W MS/W TN.  There is definitely some parameters that are coming together for this to be a pretty damaging event.  If something changes and we hit the road, we will let you know first.

Tonight we have a cold front dragging through the southland with a few showers along and ahead of it.  Those showers will not be widespread and will be confined to a rather small area of the state.

If you do see a shower this evening it won’t be heavy nor last very long.  Expect cooler conditions tomorrow as the front moves through with temperatures some 20° below the highs today in a few locations especially across the north. 

We are still watching the potential for a chase in MS/AR on Thursday, but at this time the confidence level is not high enough to raise our status beyond Slight.  We will continue to montior things and update you as conditions warrant. 

This is a view of the northern lights from our good friend Matt Grantham.  He is originally from Smiths Station, Alabama but currently resides in Corpus Christi, Texas and works for the National Weather Service office there.  Amazing shots from his new glass and camera body. 

We have mentioned over the last several weeks that there would be some big changes coming to the way we do things this year and we are now ready to announce some of those things.  First of all….we are working toward a new graphical image for our site and pages.  This includes the header banner, logo, mapping, and forecast graphics that you see posted here on Alabama Storm Trackers.com.  We are working on some apparel that will be coming out in the near future along with building our complete business model.  Here is the new Alabama Storm Trackers logo that we have decided on…

You will see this bad boy on most of our graphics along with our vehicle and any apparel that we distribute or put up for sale in the coming few months.  This is something that we are excited to have revamped and have original just for us.

Next….our streaming will be changing.  After a long run with Severe Studios we have decided to take our video needs in a different direction in terms of streaming.  We will still be providing a live stream for you guys on the road with GPS data access just like we always have.  We will just have a new provider.

ChaserTV.com will host our streaming this season for our web site and media clients.  You can still access our streaming page by clicking the “LIVE Chasecam and Chat” button at the top.  We have created a new chat that will be much better and moderated over the season during severe weather events while we are in the field.  We will be working to communicate with our followers while we are out unless it is just an extreme situation. We are excited about this change and look forward to new challenges in the coming days.

Now….to the big part of our announcement.  After long discussions and much planning the Alabama Storm Trackers have developed a partnership with a company/site that continues to grow and expand there client base over the entire continental United States…

The Alabama Storm Trackers are teaming up with Storm Scape LIVE Photography and meteorologist Michael Phelps.  This is a very exciting move as several things are going on behind the scenes that will make this a rock solid partnership and give us potential for more business opportunities in the future.  Mike has been an extreme meteorologist, videographer, and storm chaser since 1989.  His resume includes employment with The Weather Channel, KAKE-TV in Wichita, Kansas and being a consulting meteorologist for the PGA tour.  Mike is well known in the meteorology field and the chase community and brings a lot to the table.  We only believe this venture will allow us to grow as a chase team and business.  Expect many more big announcements in the future on upcoming events from us.

We will be doing a test with our new streaming service and our Storm Scape LIVE page located HERE!  Be sure to check it out as we plan to start streaming around 4:45 – 5:00 PM tomorrow Central time.  Have a great weekend……and stay tuned!

A Red Flag Warning has been put out due to high fire danger all around the state today.  We are looking at temperatures in the 60’s with very low dew points and some wind around.  This creates an environment for fires to stir out of control in a hurry.  Please heed these advisories and don’t burn anything unless you have to.  Keep a hose pipe around and do it in a safe location if you MUST burn.

Warm and dry conditions will continue through much of the week.  We will be doing some transformations to our video streaming page due to our resignation from Severe Studios this past week and will continue to work on revamping graphics for the page as well as putting things into place for severe weather and tour season.  Email us with any questions or inquiries….  alabamastormtrackers@gmail.com

Well, we didn’t get to update as much as would have liked here for the snow event, but we were working on the Bama Camera Network.  This wasn’t an overly major event, but everyone saw a decent snowfall from it across Central Alabama.  Here is the forecast map the we created before the event…

The forecast map actually lined up pretty well with the totals that we experienced over the last 24 hours.  Given that the event wasn’t long duration….things were forecast pretty good by the shorter term guidance and the various forecast offices and television meteorologists.

The heavier snow bands setup across West Alabama and then transitioned to south of I-20 as heavier precipitation spread northward as our mid level vorticity max swing out and enhanced things a bit.  Be advised that we are also working on our graphics and different logos for the site so you may see some tests on our products. 

One of our viewers, Bret Causey, of Clay County took the pictures below from Bull Gap mountain on HWY-148 near the Clay/Talladega County line. 

The images were beautiful and a few inches of snow still remains on the ground at the top of the mountain.  Temperatures are expected to remain close to freezing today before the major warming trend begins on Friday. 

Here is an awesome panoramic shot of the mountain from Alabama Storm Tracker, Eric Parker.

If you have snow shots from your given location…please feel free to send them in and we will get them on the blog.  Now that the snow event is over with….expect a warming trend in the near future. 

Well, an interesting setup is evolving across portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and south Alabama this evening and over the next 48 hours.  A shallow layer of cold air will hamper forecasts area wide and will set the stage for sleet, freezing rain, and even snowfall along the northern edge of the precip mass expected to develop.  Some precipitation has reached the ground across south Mississippi and Alabama this evening with sleet being reported across parts of Jackson County, MS and Mobile County, AL.  Heavier areas of winter wx are expected to begin developing later on tonight and the shield will expand northward toward the Jackson and Birmingham metro areas into Thursday.

There is a problem evident across several locations for precip this evening given it’s light nature.  The soundings indicate a decent amount of drying in the lower levels of the atmopshere.  Here is the sounding from Slidell, LA.

You can see the temperature (red) and dewpoint (green) lines separate down the 850 – 925mb levels begin to separate pretty significantly.  This indicates drier air at these levels and the rainfall will have to moisten up this part of the column via evaporation before we can see any appreciable precipitation at the surface.  A little further north…..the Birmingham, AL sounding shows this well also.

This will be something we have to watch in our area for some freezing rain, sleet, or even snow across Central Alabama.  Tonight, sleet and freezing rain will be possible south of I-85.  The heavier precip comes for us tomorrow.  Stay tuned…