Late Afternoon Update

**No afternoon Weather Xtreme video today; weather is a bit too active to produce one**

SEVERE WEATHER POTENTIAL: A tornado watch is in effect until 11p CT for much of Central and South Alabama…

This watch is basically along and south of I-20; it does not include Anniston or Gadsden, but it does include Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.

WHERE IS THE WARM FRONT? Dewpoint analysis suggests the front is close to U.S. 82 (Tuscaloosa to Montgomery), and making slow progress to the north.

The unstable air should reach I-20 this evening, and the warm front will mark the northern flank of the main severe weather threat.

TIMING: The prime risk of severe storms, with hail, strong winds, and perhaps an isolated tornado or two, will come from 5:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m. for North/Central Alabama. While this still looks like a lower end tornado threat for the I-20 corridor, we have had serious damage and injuries today from a tornado down in the unstable air at Columbia, MS around 2:30 this afternoon, so we will need to watch radar trends closely.

If we do have a tornado across Central Alabama, most likely it will be a brief, short lived one based on the atmospheric conditions. The better instability will remain over the south half of Alabama.

CALL TO ACTION: Simply be in a position to hear severe weather warnings if they are needed. NEVER believe you will hear an outdoor warning siren. The base line is a NOAA Weather Radio; a good smart phone app like WeatherRadio by WDT, or MyWarn, is a great way of getting warnings as well.

Be sure everyone in your home knows your “safe place”, and if you live in a mobile home, know where you are going since they are not safe during a tornado. If you have Christmas guests from out of town, go through the information with them as well.

We will keep the blog fresh with updates through the night, so stay tuned…

Tags: storms

Category: Alabama's Weather