Archive for February, 2012
Done for the Night, Get Ready for Friday
The tornado watch expired at 9 p.m. and there no alerts for Alabama at this hour.
Showers and storms continue over Central Alabama from northern Greene through southern Tuscaloosa, northern Bibb, Shelby, Talladega and into Clay Counties.
There are storms from just south of Gadsden eastward into Cherokee County near Piedmont.
Nothing is strong or severe and no problems are anticipated overnight. There will be some heavy rain as the line of continues to run out of steam and stall.
Tomorrow will feature a few storms in the afternoon as the front goes back north as more warm, moist air builds over Alabama. Friday will be another severe weather day. Areas north of Alabama, like the Ohio Valley, could have a very, very bad day Friday.
Tornado Watch Has Really Been Trimmed Down
Just a few counties left in the tornado watch tonight. The watch only goes for another forty minutes.
Instability is really dropping. The strong cap is stifling storm updrafts and strong wind shear is ripping the storm updrafts that do form apart. The storms will continue to go downhill.
One strong cell is going to pass between Springville and Ashville in the next 20 minutes. Nothing severe, but some heavy rain.
It is also lightning quite a bit in Tuscaloosa, but again, nothing severe.
Approaching the 8 O’Clock Hour
Things are calming a bit overall this evening over Central Alabama. As we lose the heating of the day, instabilities are dropping. To the south, a strong capping inversion remains in place and the storms are continuing to weaken as they push southeast.
For the most part.
The strongest storm is passing into Georgia from southern Cherokee and northern Cleburne Counties.
There is a decent storm passing north of Pell City in St. Clair County. It has shown broad rotation. When it passed east of us here in Trussville, it strengthened a good bit and had tremendous lightning and you could hear a loud roaring aloft from strong winds above the surface.
Strong but not severe storms have popped up across southern Cullman, extreme northern Jefferson into Blount Counties.
Back to the west, we continue to monitor eastern Mississippi where strong storms continue from Kosciusko to Macon. These will impact Pickens, Greene and Tuscaloosa counties over the next hour or so. They will probably weaken with time.
All this is ahead of a cold front that is slowing back to our west. The most impressve thing about the front is the moisture discontinuity. The dewpoint is 25F at Hot Springs Arkansas, 37F at Memphis and 63F at Tupelo. The front will slow and stall overnight before retreating tomorrow to the north as a warm front. We will be in the warm sector Thursday and Friday with more storms in store. Some of them will be severe Friday afternoon late and Friday night.
A tornado watch continues til 9 p.m. for Fayette, Walker, Jefferson, St. Clair, Etowah and Cherokee Counties.
Jefferson County Storms Still Strong, Not Severe
Those storms that earlier wreaked a lot of havoc in Lamar County are a shadow of their former selves, but they still are producing tremendous rain, a good deal of lightning and gusty winds as they across northern Jefferson and St. Clair Counties.
The storms extend from Ashville to Springville to Clay to Center Point to Gardendale.
They are pushing southeast toward areas from Trussville to Moody up to Southside to Ohatchee to Ragland.
No warnings in effect now in Alabama.
Tornado watch continues until 9 p.m. for Blount, Cherokee, Etowah, Fayette, Lamar, Marion, Walker and Winston Counties till 9:00 PM CST. I earlier reported erroneously that Huntsville had canceled all their counties from the watch. That wasn’t true. DeKalb and Marshall were still in the watch, but they were just canceled as well.
Looking west: the storm approaching Pickens County has weakened. Further west, there is a strong cluster of storms near Philadelphia MS. These storms could affect Sumter, Greene and Pickens Counties in a little over an hour.
Dangerous Storm Approaching Pickens County
A very strong thunderstorm is approaching Pickens County at this hour. It has been intensifying and could become severe.
That’s the circulation just west of Macon MS.
It even has some outside chance of producing a tornado.
It will move toward Memphis and Aliceville in Pickens County.
Hopefully it will weaken as it pushes east southeast.
The NWS Huntsville has canceled all the counties from the tornado watch that are in their area of repsonsibility.
