What happened to the storms?

By Joe McAdory

A National Weather Service spokesperson called for the chance of “significant tornadoes” in central Alabama early Tuesday morning. What we got was rain and maybe a clap of thunder. Despite a tornado warning or two in southwest Alabama Monday night, I don’t know of any other warnings or damage in the state. Mississippi had its share, but the system seemingly peetered out once it crossed the border.

What happened?

I’m no meteorologist but all I can figure is the nighttime cooling robbed the atmosphere of the much needed warm air to produce destructive storms. Temps hovered at or near 60, which borders on the chilly side. Sometimes it’s good when storms approach at night because of this cooling phenomenon.

Anyway, we got some needed rain out of the deal. Did forecasters cry wolf? Yeah, but they were only relying on the information they were given, and we all know predicting the weather exactly right is a crap shoot anyway. People should continue to heed future warnings.

Warning signs of recession

By Joe McAdory

We’ve been concerned about this thing called a recession for some time now. Folks seem to think it’s inevitable. I read a column written by CNN talk show host Glenn Beck last week where he and another financial expert pinpoint warning signs for a recession and/or depression. Running through the list, I couldn’t help but notice how many times the words “bank,“ “mortgages,“ and “foreclosures” were mentioned.

It made me wonder where this crisis originated in the first case. It seems that people are buying homes they really can’t afford, among other things. Below is a link to the column:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/17/beck.housingcrisis/index.html