Thanks to our friends at Marion County EMA for these images…. they write:

“THESE PICS ARE FROM THE SHOTTSVILLE AREA IN MARION COUNTY. THE LAST 5 ARE
FROM COUNTY HWY 19 IN EAST MARION CO.”

Thanks to ABC 33/40 Skywatcher Dennis Sherrod for these images… he writes:

“Hello everyone. Here are a couple of good pictures I took at 1240 A.M. this morning
when the severe storms were coming through the Center Point / Chalkville area.

As always, great coverage and reporting last night.

Dennis”

Thanks to Gloria Lundy for this shot of a downed tree in the Shottsville community of Marion County; this was caused by an EF1 tornado….

Thanks to ABC 33/40 Skywatcher Brandon Harris of Jacksonville for these images… he writes:

“Incredible lightning with these storms that rolled through this morning. Over 1.50″ of rain so far here in J’ville.”

Thanks to another one of our readers for these images of damage in the community of Heflin early this morning…

When we see a powerful line of thunderstorms approaching Alabama, you can rest assured that we are in for trouble. We also know that we are in for good rain amounts as we continue to go through drought recovery. Sometimes the bad outweighs the good and sometimes the good outweighs the bad.

I would have to say the bad outweighed the good late yesterday and last night. I remember telling someone that this line of storms, instead of uprooting hundreds of trees, would uproot literally thousands of trees.

No way we will ever know exactly how many trees came down, but it has to be in the thousands.

We could also see from lightning detection equipment that we were in for a spell that would sound like a fireworks manufacturing plant exploding. The lightning was especially severe last night.

Now, let’s discuss the good side of the story. Amazingly, some places in West/Central and South Alabama got virtually no rain, but there were a lot of beneficial amounts. Here is a complete list, and please see some special notes, at the end of the list.

1.43 Rocky Ridge/Hoover (20.98 so far in 2008)
1.00 West side of Vernon
0.12 Cottondale
1.99 Clay/Pinson (Womack Road)
1.67 SE Trussville
2.01 South Trussville
2.02 NE Trussville
1.65 Vigo (east of Piedmont)
3.70 Brilliant
0.12 Cottondale
1.40 Hokes Bluff
0.87 Auburn
1.53 Birmingham Airport
0.68 Shelby County Airport
1.40 Huntsville Airport
0.40 Muscle Shoals
1.87 Pinson
2.06 South Pinson (Carson/Red Hollow Road)
1.27 Bankhead National Forest
0.66 Ft. Payne
0.73 Decatur
1.06 Crossville
0.47 Albertville
1.24 Ashland
0.67 Alexander City
3.00 Hamilton
2.05 Oneonta
2.40 Palmerdale
1.03 Blue Pond (Cherokee County)
1.94 Cordova
0.99 Dearmandville
0.81 Ellisville
1.37 Gaylesville
0.97 Horseshoe Bend
0.68 Wadley
1.29 Wilsonville
1.12 Wadley (we get more than one report)
1.51 Martin Dam
1.56 Centre (Weiss Dam)
1.23 Gadsden
1.24 Neely Henry Dam
1.12 Logan Martin Dam
1.34 Childersburg
0.67 Lay Dam
1.07 Mitchell Dam
1.30 Jordan Dam
1.53 Smith Dam
1.38 Ashville
1.10 Concord/Hueytown
0.00 Marion (thats right, not a drop)
1.23 Muscadine
Trace Coker
0.79 Black Creek
1.58 Clay (off Deerfoot Parkway)
1.92 Inverness
1.50 Hayden
0.88 Alabaster
1.61 Greystone Farms
2.03 Noccalula Falls
0.02 U of A
1.57 Jacksonville

BIRMINGHAM DEFICIENCY DISAPPEARS
We had become accustomed to a rain deficiency at Birmingham Airport. Last night that all changed when the area was drenched with 1.53 inches of rain. So, we now have a 0.67 EXCESS. We hardly know how to spell excess.

EXTRA NOTES
* Wally Coker has an excellent web site from his private weather station in Clay off Deerfoot Parkway. He reminds us that at 2:04 a.m. today lightning detection equipment was showing 1,857 lightning strikes per minute in this storm system.

* Alston Keath is the ABC 33/40 skywatcher in Inverness. He reported 1.92 inches of rain, but he mentioned that at 2:28 a.m. it was raining so hard that it would have amounted to 10.29 inches for a full hour. Of course, it rarely rains that hard for a full hour. Alston also reported 3.75 inches of rain since Friday.

THANKS TO BILL MURRAY
Even though Bill was very sick, he did a yeoman’s job keeping the 33/40 blog updated last night. He and I usually share blog duties in the heat of battle. I had to bail out to do wall-to-wall radio coverage, for three hours without a break, on a network of three Birmingham stations because of tornado warnings. By the time I almost finished the continuous coverage, the lightning was so vicious that I got knocked out of service for an hour. All of our computers went down and we thought we had lightning damage, so I was not much help and I apologize. The lightning was so close that it popped in my phone and that popping sound went out over the air. You bet I was frightened. I am chicken when it comes to road rage, snakes of any size and lightning.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Birmingham has begun the overwhelming task of sorting out the storm events from early this morning. Their first stop was Marion County, and below is an excerpt from the Public Information Statement that they issued at 1:30 pm this afternoon.

…SHOTSVILLE TORNADO (MARION COUNTY)…

AN NWS STORM SURVEY TEAM FOUND A LONG TORNADO DAMAGE PATH ACROSS THE
NORTHERN PART OF MARION COUNTY. THE PATH BEGAN ON CR-13… BETWEEN
REEDY BRANCH ROAD AND CR-154…WHICH IS ABOUT 2.5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF
THE SHOTSVILLE COMMUNITY. FROM THERE…THE TORNADO MOVED JUST SOUTH
OF DUE EAST FOR NEARLY 18 MILES…CROSSING CR-11…AL-19…AL-187…
US-43…AND AL-253. THE TORNADO THEN TURNED SLIGHTLY TO THE LEFT…
AND TRAVELLED DIRECTLY EAST ANOTHER 7.5 MILES…BEFORE LIFTING ON
CR-34 JUST EAST OF AL-241.

THE TORNADO REMAINED MOSTLY IN A HEAVILY FORESTED AREA…AND
THOUSANDS OF TREES WERE SNAPPED AND UPROOTED. IN ADDITION…SEVERAL
MOBILE HOMES SUSTAINED ROOF DAMAGE…AND ONE CARPORT WAS DAMAGED.

THIS TORNADO HAS BEEN RATED EF-1…WITH ESTIMATED PEAK WINDS AROUND
100 MPH. THE TOTAL DAMAGE PATH WAS JUST OVER 25 MILES LONG…AND
400 YARDS WIDE AT ITS WIDEST.

-Brian-

Thanks to former ABC 33/40 Intern David Peters for these images… he writes:

“James,

Passing through Heflin on the way home to Jacksonville early this afternoon. Clean-up was underway following last night’s storm damage.

Here are shots from Highway 9 just north of I-20 (exit 199).”

Thanks to Robert Bowden for these images… he writes:

“here are pics from my sons house in heflin alabama”

Thanks to Dawn Brown for these images… she writes:

“These pictures were taken in Walker County in the Pineywoods Community off of Hwy 69.”