2008 Altoona Christmas Parade Video

Check out these videos of the 2008 Altoona Christmas Parade.



Thanks to my good friend Kevin Wilbert for these videos. He has been organizing the Altoona Christmas parade since 2007. Also, thanks go out to Charlotte Wilbert (Kevin's mom) for her nice camera work on the videos. We hope that everyone reading this blog gets a chance to come see our humble little town someday, and hopefully drop by during our parade. We assure you, you won't find a better bunch of people anywhere.

Possible Snow For Monday?

The buzz around the south right now is who will get snow on Monday and who will just get a cold rain? Right now, that's a tough one to answer. As is usual with winter storms in the south, this one will all depend upon timing of the cold air and positioning of the moisture. The perfect scenario for a good southern snow storm would be for the cold air to move in and already be in place before the moisture hits. But this is not appearing to set up that way, at least not here in Alabama. Going by the model analysis at the moment, it appears temps will be just at or above 40 degrees in the wee hours of the morning on Monday, as the moisture begins to move into the state. As the morning progresses, and the low pressure center pushes northeastward over the the Gulf of Mexico, the counterclockwise winds around the low pressure center will pull cold continental air down into the southern states. This cold air will be moving in from the general direction of Northwest to Southeast.

Going by the models as of now, by 6am on Monday the freezing line should be along a line from Pine Bluff, AR to Tupelo, MS to just east of Nashville, TN. So it appears that areas of southern Arkansas and northern Mississippi may receive an all snow event. While limited moisture will be around in the middle Tennessee area, but they could still see a few snow flurries. By the 9-10am time frame, we expect the changeover to begin in the Shoals area of Alabama. Then by around the noon hour, places like Decatur and Huntsville should begin to change over to snow. Birmingham should change over some time around the 2-3pm time frame. Followed by Gadsden and Anniston around 3-4pm. By the time this wraps up, even places as far south as Alexander City, or even Montgomery could wind up seeing at least a few flurries. But for the most part, the further south you go, the less chance you'll have of seeing appreciable snowfall.

After the system moves out and away from the south, it will likely ride up the east coast and become a major snow storm for some parts of the eastern seaboard. It's simply too early to tell right now who will get what, but i'm wagering that somewhere between the Appalachians and the Atlantic Ocean, there will be a big time snowfall.

Snow In The South (A Precious Thing)

Whenever I talk to someone from "up north", there are many questions that they ask me about the south. But the question I get asked the most is, "why do southern people go crazy over snow?". There's actually a very easy answer for that. People from the Midwest, the Great Lakes and New England see snow as a nuisance, a scourge or an inconvenience. They have to shovel it, drive in it, go to work and school in it. It can be a major headache. But in the south, where there are very few snow plows, entire states sometimes shut down due to just a couple of inches of the white stuff. So a lot of people don't have to go to work or school in it. They don't have to drive in it...so it's less of a headache, and more of a chance to have fun and take a brief pause from life's worries to look outside the window at how beautiful mother nature, and life itself can be.

That's my theory anyway, because that's what it means to me.

Storm Report

It has been a wet and wild ride the past few days here in Walnut Grove, just like many locations in Alabama. We've picked up nearly six inches of rain in here in my backyard, causing flooding, and we've seen a peak wind gust at 57mph! Even had our first hailstones of the year, when nickel sized hail fell around 3pm yesterday afternoon. Thankfully, even though it's been nothing to smile at, we DID dodge the worst bullet, so to speak. The Anniston and Oxford areas weren't so fortunate though. A tornado ripped through downtown Oxford, causing a lot of damage to several homes and businesses, including the mall, which sustained considerable roof damage.

Thankfully, all that has now moved out the area and we can breathe a little easier with sunshine returning by Thursday.

January Averages and Extremes for Birmingham

Here are Birmingham's averages and extremes for the month of January...dating back to 1900:

AVG HIGH: 52.8

AVG LOW: 32.3

RECORD AVG HIGH: 66.6 IN 1950

RECORD AVG LOW: 21.5 IN 1940

AVERAGE RAINFALL: 5.45 INCHES

RECORD RAINFALL: 13.37 IN 1937


And Finally...

TOTAL NUMBER OF DAYS WITH MEASURABLE SNOWFALL IN THE MONTH OF JANUARY SINCE 1900: 48

The Birmingham Airport has recorded 115 measurable snowfalls since 1900...and 48 of them have come in the month of January!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! May 2009 be even better to you than 2008 was...God bless you all!

My Wacky Thermometer

If you've been on the blog today, you may have noticed my thermometer go sky high...it read the high temp today as 72 degrees. I can assure you it DID NOT get that warm here today. Unfortunately a portion of the sensor was in the sun just a little bit, so I had to fix it and make sure the whole sensor is in the shade. Everything should be good with it from now on. Just thought i'd let y'all know that you aren't losing your eyesight lol...it's just my thermometer.