Gary England is Dead, and I Don't Feel So Good Myself

Local:

Thursday (High 86, Low 65): Partly cloudy. Widely scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible. 

Friday (High 86, Low 68): Partly to mostly cloudy. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible. 

Saturday (High 86, Low 70): Partly to mostly cloudy. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible. 

Sunday (High 85, Low 69): Partly cloudy with a 40% chance of showers/thunderstorms. 

Monday (High 86, Low 70): Partly cloudy with a 40% chance of showers/thunderstorms. 

Tuesday (High 88, Low 70): Partly cloudy with a 30% chance of showers/thunderstorms. 

Wednesday (High 89, Low 69): Partly cloudy with a 30% chance of showers/thunderstorms. 

Thursday (High 90, Low 70): Partly to mostly sunny with a 20% chance of showers/thunderstorms. 

Beach - Gulf Shores:

Thursday (High 88, Low 76): Partly to mostly cloudy with a 50% chance of numerous rounds of showers and thunderstorms. 

Friday (High 88, Low 77): Showers and thunderstorms likely. 

Saturday (High 88, Low 76): Showers and thunderstorms likely. 

Sunday (High 89, Low 76): Showers and thunderstorms likely. 

For whatever fans of this weather blog might actually be out there, I have someone in my family tree who is trying to get me a fully functional laptop again. I don't know what happened to the old one, but I suspect a lightning strike was a little too close, because my disc player for the TV was fried the same evening. I was asleep whenever it happened. Yes, I do sleep through storms sometimes, if they are not severe. And being a bookish type, I've put that TV in the pantry room with a lot of other mostly useless junk. Sort of rearranged things. 

That thing last Saturday was quite a damaging wind event. Let's take a look at it. 

It sure was focused on our region too, North Alabama and Southern Tennessee, also Northern Mississippi and Georgia. I personally know someone in Cullman who had a tree fall on her home, though nobody was hurt, and I understand the roof damage was minor. At my place, it only knocked the power out briefly and spooked the Salem cat. He heads to the closet whenever the weather gets too threatening. Not all varmints are that smart. 

Here is an alternate, experimental source for the storm reports from the June 7 event, since nobody much likes to keep things simple and direct anymore. It takes a little effort to hunt around and find those simple text reports that used to be the standard point of reference after severe weather events. And I don't feel like compiling them this evening. 

It's not that this computer doesn't work . . . it's just slow . . . and the internal speakers don't work. And it freezes up a fair amount when I'm just watching videos for fun. So it would certainly freeze up during all the stuff I have gotten used to watching during severe weather events. 

The good news is we don't get all that much severe weather in the summer months, as a rule. The weather is boring right now, and I don't mind that a bit. The spring season definitely wasn't. 

Today has been mostly sunny in Cullman with light East/Northeasterly winds, a High temperature of 86 and a Low of 59. The humidity is not that bad for early summer. 

And I was going to show some graphics here. But they are screwing up. 

Well, that was a convoluted way to have to get the graphics in here, but here we are. 

Most of any organized rain and storms are back over the Ark-LA-Tex region. We've got a stationary front that will be slowly lifting Northward over the next day or two. And we have high pressure centered over Kentucky and Tennessee. 

Next few days, looks like Highs in the mid-to-upper-80's and Lows in the mid-to-upper-60's. And then the extended period, High temperatures creeping up closer to 90 and Lows hovering around 70. 

Saturday through Monday, will increase rain chances to 40% but in general they should be about 30% for any one spot getting one of our random summer showers or thunderstorms. 

Gary England has died today at the senseless age of 85. Here is his famous coverage of the May 3, 1999 tornado outbreak. I'm pretty sure that's the one folks in the Plains still remember best, along with a few similar events like the Andover, Kansas tornado in 1991 and the El Reno tornado in 2013. 

Weatherbrains interviewed Max Velocity for their latest podcast. I've seen bits and pieces of it. Kevin Laws was also on the show, and I seem to remember another guest who resembled a grinning baboon. Kevin is always good to hear from though, works at the National Weather Service in Birmingham. 

As for the future of this blog or any other weather efforts . . . at this point I simply don't know. The only reason I haven't let the interest die completely is quirky things, like finding out that my favorite DJ was kin to the author of The Nature of Violent Storms. Then having that book show up in my mailbox (used copy I found online) on the exact day we had a close call with a confirmed tornado (hit Sipsey, lifted before it got here), also happened to be the arbitrary birthday I've assigned to my cat. Plus I just end up with people texting me asking about the weather if I don't do something like this. It's a shame I can't go down a similar path to folks like Max Velocity. I dunno. Hitler painted roses. Street musicians go home.