James Spann, Taylor Sarallo, Evan Chickvara, Brian Peters, and the rest of the ABC 33/40 team with live coverage of a tornado outbreak in Alabama March 17, 2021.
I'm from Arkansas and have never even been to Alabama, but I have watched every James Spann tornado coverage since April 27, 2011. This guy is a legend
I’m the reverse of Jason. We left AL to AR in ‘88. Springfield Meteorologists were good, but James is the man. We’re in NWA now, 6 miles S of Jane,MO. It was 70 around this time with TS coming.
I was the girl who sent in the video going through the backyard in Clanton that day. Spann, thank you for being the KING of weather here in Alabama. We are so thankful for you.
SPANN is the freaking KING of Alabama meteorology! Guy knows every nook and cranny of Alabama and his landmark identification surely saves lives. Incredible to watch.
Greetings from New Jersey. Been keeping track of this station since the 2011 Super Outbreak. James Spann is great at what he does and his knowledge has def saved a bunch of lives. Great job 33/40!
I watch him from rhode Island also... And agree totally! He's great. And the coverage is informative and life saving.. as well as entertaining at the same time.
I have lived in Virginia my whole life. I found his old tornado coverage here on YT last year, and finally figured out how to get notified of tornado warnings in his area. I was at work when I got the first notification of a warning. I watched for an hour at the office with one of our interns. I taught the intern about polygons and couplets while we were working.
@Tracy Frederick yeah but luckily you folks in Alabama dodged a huge bullet and if the conditions were a little bit different it would’ve been really bad
I remember watching this live all the way from England because it was briefly mentioned on the English weather forecasts. James Spann is one of the best meteorologists in the world as he always remains calm and collected. Taylor Sarallo as well did an amazing job of keeping up with the radar as there were so many tornado warning throughout this coverage. Amazing work.
When my daughter started attending the University of Alabama, one of the first things she was told was: when weather gets bad, find James Spann. And listen to him. When he starts talking about polygons, pay attention and get ready to act.
SPANN is the man when it comes to weather i live in iowa but i always watch his coverage online hes a great meteoroligist not to sound funny but when the good lord does come calling on his headstone it should simply say RESPECT THE POLYGON
the false alarm sirens in Tuscaloosa remind me of the event that led me here. Spring of 76 and we were getting ready to leave school for the day. The weather forecast was for rain; tornadoes are rare but possible up here in Michigan. (An EF1 took out my step-brothers brand new house several years ago.) Lightning hit the school causing the fire alarm to go off. The teachers hustled us out via the fire safety protocols. I was line leader that day (it was kindergarten) and I was the one who first noticed the funnel shaped cloud dropping out of the sky northwest of the school. I pointed it out to my teacher who began to shout to the others to get the kids back in and pointed at the sky to convince her fellow educators the real danger. The funnel cloud did not damage any of the school's in my small town but the high school of the city two miles away lost the roof on their gymnasium and luckily that was all.
Here it is 2 1/2 years later and I am watching this. I enjoy James and his team covering severe weather in Alabama and I live in Utah - the state and not the town in Alabama ha. Yeah, I know the two places are spelled differently . Cheers!
I guess I'll be going through over 7 hours of video just to see if James made his usual joke about Brian Peters getting a bean burrito from Taco Bell or ordering a pizza.
I wish we could have James Spann here in Chicago. We have Tom Skilling of WGN TV9 weather who shows us all the same radar coverage like James Spann does, but he's not on for the length of time that ABC in Birmingham Alabama gives to James.
I flew out of Montgomery early this morning to meet my Girlfriend in Portland, Oregon to propose to her. I'm grateful that my Family in Deatsville were safe from these PDS storms!
I watches these all the time on RU-vid and every time I watch these I wanna move to Alabama, don't get weather like this on the Canadian prairies, some bad stuff but not quite like this.
How many times did Selma Get hit? I counted like 4 different tornado warned storms for them. Also Red Bay the city where the Tiffin motorhomes my work sells are made had 2 tornado warnings as well!
Was there some limiting factor that day? Given the way the event was forecasted with the ultra rare level 5 and all the other hyperbole it just seems there was. So far it seems like the tornadoes were "weak" and not the strong, EF3 or higher. Definitely thankful none did.
Yeah I'm not really sure what limited the tornadoes that day other than there wasn't that much sunshine through the day, and how storms weren't super isolated they were mainly in a mass of rain
Generally speaking there wasn’t a CAP to hold down Thunderstorm development earlier in the day. If there had been a stronger CAP in place earlier storms would not have formed and when the CAP was broken the storms would have been a lot mor severe. Back in 2011 after the Morning storms the atmosphere became capped and the sun broke out making a highly unstable airmass even worse and when the CAP was broken all hell broke loose. A CAP is a layer of warm air above cooler air in the atmosphere and air that is rising can;t go through that. Air cools as it rises but if you get a layer of warm air above the cooler air that is the CAP. On bad severe weather days the atmosphere is generally under a fairly strong CAP allowing for destabilization and when it breaks it allows storms to explosively develop.
What is this viewing area gonna do when James Spann retires? Even if he trains and takes someone under his wing to become like him, htere is no meteorologist that can so accurately and calmly describe the most dangerous of situations and keep others from losing their lives. He saved people in 2011 and will save more with his clear and concise predictions of a storm's path and what needs to be done to stay safe. No one better.
I live in Birmingham, and I'll put it like this: no matter who takes over once he finally decides to retire, we know 2 things. He will be the one to train them so we know we'll be in good hands, and we also know that no one will ever be able to do it like him. James Spann is a once in a lifetime legend. I'll even go as far as to say that when the day comes that James Spann passes away, the state of Alabama will shut down in mourning and he will deserve and probably get a state funeral
So everything changes. There's only one Spann, and when he finally decides to announce his retirement, what else could he say, but make us feel secure in that his successor is the best of the best. Of course, management has the most say. We lost the best meteorologist in the fabulous Jason Simpson, and chief meteorologist James Spann was clearly Jason's mentor, so much that he was hired away from 33/40 B'ham to forecast at another large station here in Alabama as Chief Meteorologist! He deserved it! Watch the April 27th Palm Sunday video here and the chemistry between Jason and James was unmistakable...and Jason's commitment was every bit as passionate as James'. And he knew his stuff, geography included. Since Jason left, no one, including the boring, somewhat angry Charles Daniels, who was hired to try to fill Simpson's shoes was a poor decision on management's part. Now we have Taylor. Sweet, but an obvious weather woman in training... James, you are loved and respected world-wide! Thank the Lord for blessing you with your amazing talents and for making that last-minute decision to further your career officially and heading off to college to major in meteorology! Roll Tide, James Spann!!
@@MAUSCOMAN As of August 8th, Jason Simpson will be back in Birmingham at WVTM 13. While he isn't directly replacing Jerry Tracey, there have been some rumblings that Jerry may be retiring at some point relatively soon, and there's a believable school of thought that Jason may have been tapped to be his successor, but work alongside him on the 6pm and 10pm weeknight shows until that happens.
Seems it was "sledge" and "hamner". Upon checking if you were right I couldn't help but notice the town called "intercourse" at the bottom of the radar near scratch hill at 35:01 lol
@@bradm1986 lol! And yes I went and looked, and you're right. Damn, they were one letter away from greatness there. Gonna start calling it a "sledge hamner" now 🤣
15 حقيقة اعصار التورنادوا : هو في الاساس رباني ومن غضب الله الجبار ومن شدته انه اذا مر على نهر شقه نصفين ورفع قاعه الطيني وذر ترابه في الهواء وكذلك يقتلع البنايات والبيوت والاشجار ومن ثم رميها في مكان بعيد مهما كانت ثقيلة وعظيمة ويحمل الجسور والقناطر والخزانات الكبيرة ويدور بها وكانها عود ثقاب ويلفها كالمروحة من شدة قوته العنيفة ويحمل معه الحيوان والانسان الى عنان السماء ثم يلفظه خارج الغلاف الجوي او الكرة الارضية وكانها عملية تفريغ نحو الفضاء الخارجي مما يتسبب بخسائر مادية جسيمة وهائلة تقدر بمئات المليارات من الدولارات وهذا غيظ من فيض وهذا بعض ما يجري في امريكا ان الذين كذبوا باياتنا واستكبروا عنها لا تفتح لهم ابواب السماء ولا يدخلون الجنة حتى يلج الجمل في سم الخياط ... اوكل الله جل في علاه بكل شئ ملكا : فهناك ملك الجبال وملك البحار وملك السحاب وملك الرياح وباستطاعته ان يامرها بما يريد ان زلزلوا او احرقوا او دمروا او حطموا او اغرقوا فينتقم الله ممن يشاء ولا يستطيع اي مخلوق في هذا الكون منع قضاءه جل وعلا ويقال ان صوت الرعد حسبما ورد في الاثر انه صوت الملك الذي يزجر به السحاب ويسوقه حيث يشاء بامر الله عز وجل ... والله اعلم قال تعالى ( وما تاتيهم من آية من آيات ربهم الا كانوا عنها معرضين ) وقال تعالى ( فأرسلنا عليهم الطوفان والجراد والقمل والضفادع والدم ... ) وقال تعالى ( وان يروا كسفا من السماء ساقطا يقولوا سحاب مركوم ) وقال تعالى ( فلما راوه عارضا مستقبل اوديتهم قالوا هذا عارض ممطرنا بل هو مااستعجلتم به ريح فيها عذاب اليم ) وقال تعالى ( ولو شئنا لرفعناه بها ولكنه أخلد إلى الأرض واتبع هواه فمثله كمثل الكلب إن تحمل عليه يلهث أو تتركه يلهث ذلك مثل القوم الذين كذبوا بآياتنا فاقصص القصص لعلهم يتفكرون ) وقال تعالى ( مثل الذين حملوا التوراة ثم لم يحملوها كمثل الحمار يحمل اسفارا بئس مثل القوم الذين كذبوا بآيات الله والله لا يهدي القوم الظالمين ) وقال تعالى ( قل ياأهل الكتاب لستم على شيء حتى تقيموا التوراة والإنجيل وما أنزل إليكم من ربكم وليزيدن كثيرا منهم ما أنزل إليك من ربك طغيانا وكفرا فلا تأس على القوم الكافرين ) يَـأَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ قَدْ جَآءَكُمْ رَسُولُنَا يُبَيِّنُ لَكُمْ كَثِيراً مِّمَّا كُنتُمْ تُخْفُونَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَيَعْفُواْ عَن كَثِيرٍ قَدْ جَآءَكُمْ مِّنَ اللَّهِ نُورٌ وَكِتَابٌ مُّبِينٌ يَهْدِي بِهِ اللَّهُ مَنِ اتَّبَعَ رِضْوَانَهُ سُبُلَ السَّلامِ وَيُخْرِجُهُمْ مِّنِ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ بِإِذْنِهِ وَيَهْدِيهِمْ إِلَى صِراطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ وهذا ما سيحدث لامريكا كثيرا وستدفع الثمن باهضا كل شئ انتهى ولا يستطيعون فعل اي شئ اللهم عليك بهم فانهم لا يعجزونك
Poor James. His, and other meteorologists' work can be a thankless job sometimes. I think after what happened in 2011, a lot has changed. I can hear in his voice when he said things like "just because a storm has passed through once, doesn't mean your threat is over" "we repeat things because people come and go through weather coverage" "not expecting to hear sirens in pouring rain" "just because you're on the 2nd floor of an apartment doesn't mean it's safe - go to the lowest still" and things like that - almost sounds matter of factly, tired & almost dad like. It's fortunate this event was tame compared to its risk, but it's always better to be safe than sorry. Taylor did a good job too, outside of maybe moving the sky cameras a tad too much, but I'm sure everyone in Alabama who stays vigilant with weather, James appreciates and it keeps him going.
Even though I live all the way up in Michigan, I'm still a fan of the work he does. I first discovered James's coverage from 2011 after that particular event was on Storm Chasers and I wanted to know more about it. I was absolutely amazed by how much he cares about everyone down there and how well he knows his state. You could probably point at any random spot on a map of Alabama and he could give you the names of the schools and businesses there. It's also nice that the things he tells people to help them stay safe when a tornado is coming can help no matter where a person lives. Since tornadoes are rare in my part of the world, I've never heard a local meteorologist say anything about wearing helmets, thick soled shoes, or having air horns and weather radios, so most people around here don't even think to do those things, but at least I know enough to be prepared if that rare event ever happens to me.
Yeah he gets so many haters he has to always deal with. And I honestly think he has PTSD to some degree from April 27 2011. So he takes these things even more seriously than he did before
@@peachxtaehyung He was so very hard on himself for the high death toll on April 27, 2011. But the difference was that on April 27, 2011, there was sunshine out the whole mid morning (after the first wave of storms; very powerful at that) to mid afternoon, instead of constant cloud cover, rain and thunderstorms that really mitigated and ultimately eliminated the overnight threat.
@@ILoveOldTWC yeah I was just saying that that's why he takes it so seriously I think is because of the outcome from April 27 2011. But yeah I think it would've been alot different than it was if there was more sunshine. Still not a super outbreak as those only happen every 40 yrs but still alot worse than it was
@@peachxtaehyung His own home got hit and was badly damaged but still intact today. He found out that his wife is fine, then continued on-air, with this kind of coverage.
Hello Mr. Spann. I've never lived in Alabama, but I have so much respect for you. I have been a certified spotter since 2012 and I am astraphobic. I have been studying meteorology since I was ten in 1990 & as a disabled woman I have survived a superstorm, several tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and as of last year a wildfire that destroyed where I lived & over 80% of my town. So please everyone know that natural disasters can occur anywhere at anytime. When a warning is issued (the level three evacuation order was delayed but everyone survived) please take shelter. It is not about whether or not a tornado strikes, it's about saving lives. Please respect the polygon & thank you sir for everything you and ABC 33/40 does. Love from the Pacific Northwest. Stay safe, stay kind, stay well.
James Spann is the best meteorologist, period. We can now call this event "The high risk flop of 2021", and in a good way! I was hoping it wouldn't be like another Easter Sunday, or April 27, 2011 event. High risks are very rare in this area, and if it wasn't for that cold boundary, it would've been a whole different story. But without said, there was some pretty bad tornadoes, but none that were EF4-EF5 like they were calling for.
He said it wasn't a flop though. There was still like 20-30 tornadoes. So while none were as strong as predicted but yeah I don't think it was a flop. A flop to me is what happened in oklahoma in May 2019 lol where there was tornadoes but only a couple and none were long tracked. I wish it was a flop though
I honestly have been waiting for this since Wednesday. Our storms in Arkansas where no where near Alabama’s numbers, I can watch James Spann for hours.
This event underperformed on what was predicted for a HIGH Risk. There would be no more tornadoes in the viewing area after they went back to regular programing after the 8:35p.m. update. The highest rated Tornado in the viewing area was EF2 (Chilton, CO) Regarding overnight and next day...no tornadoes touched down in the viewing area. Most activity remained to the SE part of Alabama.
James Spann is the best meteorologist there ever was, I doubt there will ever be better than him. I watch these all the time. You learn a lot from him, james is an excellent teacher.
(I think this was the right coverage) When a tornado hit Gardendale and Mount olive, which is where I live, I could hear a very low thunder, that just kept going. Went on for about a minute and a half before we looked back at the coverage and realized it was only about a mile from us. Scary times man
I was watching these storms go through and updating my friend who has a sister at UAB. Her sister was fine fortunately. Luckily in GA where I live we barely got anything.
He’s so knowledgeable of the area he serves because he’s grown up there. Alabama this man is a saint. He cares so much about you and all of us only wish I weather departments are like this
I'm from Ohio but I subscribed to 33/40 in Alabama BECAUSE of James Spann. Greatest Weatherman of all Time, so calm voiced yet urgent. I have such a girl crush on Taylor's voice. 😍 I'm sorry, Taylor, because my mom is kinda like you top wise, and all the horror stories I've heard about being "big" and having serious back issues... Anyhoo, I hope you don't have those kind of problems. ❤️☹️
5 years old. Your like someone who you know. Anna who goes to church with the Beatles in the United States. She went to preschool at their church in the United States. She got called an angel by a fox & she’s only 5 years old.
I know this is just an echo chamber, but James Spann is an incredible meteorologist, especially when warning people live. His geographic knowledge of Alabama is extraordinary, he can tell you where almost every BBQ place is in every polygon lol
I use to live in Alabama on two different occasions hoover, Homewood and Helena and these meteorologist did a superb excellent job and I am from Arkansas and have always kept up with these guys and they did a awesome job under dangerous circumstances
