Archive for July 18th, 2012
Wet At Times Through Friday
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MESSY MORNING FOR SOME: A cluster of storms formed over the I-65 corridor in the Birmingham metro at mid-morning, and dropped 2 to 4 inches of rain on parts of Jefferson and Shelby Counties, producing some flooding problems… see Buck Creek at Helena…
Roads were closed around Alabaster for a while, but the water is receding this afternoon.
THIS AFTERNOON: The air is now cool and stable around Tuscaloosa and Birmingham; most of the active storms are now well to the north, over the Tennessee Valley, and to the west over Mississippi. Our friend King TUTT (a tropical upper tropospheric trough), just east of here, has prodded the enhanced coverage of showers and storms. And, it has also kept temperatures down. Looking at the hourly observations, Birmingham’s high so far today is only 77 degrees… the record low maximum for today is 79 set way back in 1906. I get the idea we will make to just past that over the next two hours, but we are very close to record levels for a cool July day. (We just hit 80 at 3:00… so no record)
TOMORROW/FRIDAY: The TUTT will stay in the same place, and we expect scattered to numerous showers and storms both days. Where the sun breaks out for a while, the high will be close to 90, but where showers and storms form early in the day, we will be well below that. Again on these days we have potential for beneficial summer rain for most communities.
OUR WEEKEND: Showers and storms should become fewer in number Saturday and Sunday as the upper feature dissipates and heights rise. We will roll with the typical summer forecast… partly sunny days with a few scattered showers and storms each afternoon. Highs should be in the low 90s. And, that kind of weather should continue into early next week.
GULF COAST WEATHER: Showers and a few storms are likely tomorrow and Friday, especially over the Florida Panhandle in places like Destin and Panama City. Then, for the weekend, the weather will be improved with about 6 to 8 hours of sunshine both days with the usual chance of scattered thunderstorms. Highs will hold in the upper 80s, and the sea water temperature this afternoon at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab is a warm 88 degrees.
TROPICS: All remains quiet… there is a vast area of dry air over the Atlantic basin preventing any tropical action. See the Weather Xtreme video for the details.
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Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow…
An Update Just Before 2:30
Storms over Central Alabama have shifted mainly westward this afternoon.
Areal flood advisories are in effect for parts of the following counties:
Choctaw County until 6:15 p.m .
Etowah until 4:15 p.m.
Fayette/Lamar until 4 p.m.
Walker/Winston until 3:45 p.m.
Greene/Hale/Pickens/Tuscaloosa until 3:45 p.m.
An areal flood warning (more serious) is in effect for western Shelby County until 4:30 p.m.
5.30 inches of rain fell at the fire station in Alabaster
The bottom line is that we don’t want you to wade or drive into any flooded area.
Here are some rainfall amounts since yesterday morning as estimated by the BMX Doppler.
At 2:15, radar indicated much of the heavy weather had shifted into western Alabama. But there were heavy storms capable of producing localized flooding over northern Etowah County north of the Attalla/Gadsden areas.
In western Alabama, the heaviest storms were in two groups. One includes parts of Lamar, Fayette, Pickens and Hale Counties. Some of the heaviest rain was between Vernon and Millport as well as from Fayette south to near Gordo.
The other area is over northern Choctaw into southern Sumter Counties. This activity is well south of I-59.
Overall, everything is moving south slowly.
Look at this beautiful visible satellite image of the Southeast, clearly showing the storms over Alabama.
Skies have cleared over East Alabama, where it was 86F at Anniston. It was 73F at Birmingham.
BUSY DAY NATIONALLY
Over 50 current warnings nationally, including one tornado warning, nearly a dozen flash flood warnings and many severe thunderstorm warnings. Look at this list from my Gibson Ridge Software taken a short while ago.
Flood Warning for Western Shelby County
The flash flood warning for Shelby County expired at 1:30 p.m. But flooding continues across parts of Shelby County so the NWS issued a new Areal Flood Warning for western Shelby County.
* FLOOD WARNING FOR WEST CENTRAL SHELBY COUNTY IN ALABAMA…
* UNTIL 430 PM CDT
* AT 125 PM CDT…LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS REPORTED FLOODING
IS CONTINUING ACROSS THE AREA FROM PREVIOUS HEAVY RAINFALL.
FLOODING CONTINUES ALONG SOME STREETS AND ROADWAYS IN THE ALABASTER
AREA…ESPECIALLY IN AREAS ALONG AND NEAR THOMPSON ROAD AND HIGHWAY
119. FLOODWATERS ALSO CONTINUE TO MOVE DOWN BUCKS CREEK.
ALTHOUGH RAINFALL HAS TAPERED OFF IN THE AREA…FLOODING WILL
CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT FEW HOURS AS FLOOD WATERS SLOWLY RECEDE.
* SOME LOCATIONS THAT WILL EXPERIENCE FLOODING INCLUDE…ALABASTER…
HELENA…AND MAYLENE.
Areal flood warnings don’t show up in many automated systems. For example, they are not displayed on Gibson Ridge radar screens. But they are important. They are automatically transmitted on the MyWARN severe weather notification system. MyWARN has been cranking out literally thousands of watch, warning and severe weather risk alerts today. All in less than 10 seconds from the time they left the NWS forecasters’ keyboards.
The beauty of this app is that is only notifies you if you are IN the warning polygon. For example, people at Oak Mountain State Park would not have received this alert on MyWARN since they aren’t included. But if they drove to downtown Pelham, the alert would have been sounded when they entered the polygon.
Learn more about this revolutionary, game changing app on the MyWARN website.
Flash Flood Warning : Jefferson County 2:00 PM
Heavy rainfall continues to fall across much of the Birmingham metro. Several areas have received over two inches of rainfall in a very short period of time.
Small streams and road could be experiencing some high water levels. Showers and thunderstorms continue along the Interstate 65 Corridor from northern Jefferson County to central Chilton County.
Remember if you come to a road that is flooded…TURN AROUND, DON”T DROWN…
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM HAS ISSUED A
* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR…
CENTRAL JEFFERSON COUNTY IN ALABAMA…
* UNTIL 200 PM CDT
* AT 1110 AM CDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDICATED SLOW MOVING
THUNDERSTORMS WITH VERY HEAVY RAINFALL ACROSS THE WARNED AREA. TWO
TO FOUR INCHES HAS FALLEN IN PARTS OF THE AREA…AND AN ADDITIONAL
ONE TO THREE INCHES IS POSSIBLE DURING THE NEXT HOUR.
* RUNOFF FROM THIS EXCESSIVE RAINFALL WILL CAUSE FLASH FLOODING TO
OCCUR. SOME LOCATIONS THAT WILL EXPERIENCE FLOODING INCLUDE…
BESSEMER…BIRMINGHAM…FAIRFIELD…FULTONDALE…GARDENDALE…
HOMEWOOD…HOOVER…HUEYTOWN…IRONDALE…MOUNTAIN BROOK…VESTAVIA
HILLS…ADAMSVILLE……BROOKSIDE…CENTER POINT…
CLAY…ENSLEY…FORESTDALE…GRAYSVILLE AND KETONA LAKES.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH FLOODED ROADWAYS. BE PREPARED TO MOVE TO
HIGHER GROUND IF FLASH FLOODING OCCURS IN YOUR AREA.
Flash Flood Warning : Shelby County 1:30 PM
The NWS has issued a flash flood warning for parts of Shelby County.
Up to two inches of rain has fallen in the past hour across parts of Shelby County near and south of Alabaster. Additional heavy rain will rotate across the area from southern Jefferson County.
In addition, heavy rain has fallen across northern Jefferson County from the storms that are streaming southward along I-65. John Talbot reports water standing on roads in area around his business in Fultondale. Road in front of his office is submerged. Terry Sasser reports 1.41 inches of rain as of 10:33. He surmises there has been some street flooding n Gardendale and Fultondale.
The good news is that the rain is tapering now across northern Jefferson, with the heaviest rain over southern Jefferson moving into northern Shelby. Rain is also heavy from west of Talladega Springs to Jemison across Chilton County.
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM HAS ISSUED A
* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR…
WESTERN SHELBY COUNTY IN ALABAMA…
* UNTIL 130 PM CDT
* AT 1039 AM CDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED SLOW
MOVING THUNDERSTORMS WITH VERY HEAVY RAINFALL ACROSS THE WARNED
AREA. TWO TO THREE INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE
AREA…AND AN ADDITIONAL ONE TO TWO INCHES IS POSSIBLE DURING THE
NEXT HOUR.
* RUNOFF FROM THIS EXCESSIVE RAINFALL WILL CAUSE FLASH FLOODING TO
OCCUR. SOME LOCATIONS THAT WILL EXPERIENCE FLOODING INCLUDE…
ALABASTER…CALERA…HELENA…MONTEVALLO…PELHAM…AMERICAN
VILLAGE…INDIAN SPRINGS VILLAGE…MAYLENE…OAK MOUNTAIN
AMPITHEATER…OAK MOUNTAIN STATE PARK…SHELBY COUNTY AIRPORT AND
UNIVERSITY OF MONTEVALLO.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE
ROADWAY. THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO CROSS
SAFELY.
