Severe Weather Threat Decreases for Central Alabama

When issuing the latest day one convective outlook, the SPC removed most of Alabama from the risk for severe weather we were expecting later tonight. As Brian mentioned in his post below, the ongoing showers and thunderstorms across southern Alabama and the Gulf Coast are producing subsidence on the back side of the rain shield, as well as limiting the return flow or warm, moist air back into Central Alabama. This means the atmosphere over Alabama has stabilized and is not expected to become unstable because of the rain and cloud cover. The widespread and organized threat for severe weather for Alabama for later tonight has decreased significantly. Great news!

The only parts of Alabama currently outlined within risk, the green line on the image below, are portions of southern Alabama, and the extreme northwestern corner of the state. We expect the widespread showers over Central and South Alabama to continue for the next few hours. The main concern for the near-term is some areas of flooding. Some locations have received nearly two inches of rain since midnight, and this is causing ponding on the the roadways as well as allowing streams to run full. Remember if you come across flood waters, TURN AROUND, DON’T DROWN.

Though the severe weather threat has decreased for areas in Alabama, this does not mean we will not see storms later tonight. We still expect quite a bit of severe weather to develop to our west this afternoon and evening. This activity will race east and will impact much of Alabama during the overnight hours, but because the atmosphere over Alabama is more stable, the storms should be weakening as they enter the state. We will likely see a few strong storms overnight, and an isolated severe storm will still be possible, especially for areas along the state line with Mississippi,  but organized and widespread severe weather is not expected for Alabama.

Of course we will continue to monitor trends throughout the rest of today and we will be watching the weather to our west, as things can certainly change rapidly when it comes to the weather.

Category: Alabama's Weather, Severe Weather