Everyone Knows It’s Windy (and Warm)

Who’s tripping down the streets of the city
Smilin’ at everybody she sees
Who’s reachin’ out to capture a moment
Everyone knows it’s Windy

Do you remember that song by The Association? It certainly applies to today’s weather.

This graphic shows the center of the low pressure system west of Kansas City and the surface wind field across the U.S.

Note how our surface winds over Central Alabama are “backed”, which means they are coming more out of the southeast that southwest (veered). This is a critical piece in tornado formation and it worries us about the tornado threat as long as we have instability this afternoon and evening.

Potentially tornadic storms are over eastern Mississippi at this hour. There is strong rotation east of Ackerman MS west of Columbus, but no tornado debris signature yet.

Back to the winds. Some peak wind gusts so far today:

Birmingham International Airport…31 mph
Shelby County Airport…26 mph
Tuscaloosa…31 mph
Anniston…33 mph
Muscle Shoals…35 mph
Huntsville…41 mph
Columbus MS…29 mph

It is also warm. Check out these 2 p.m. temperatures/dewpoints:

Birmingham…75F/60F
Tuscaloosa…75F/65F
Calera…74F/61F
Montgomery…78F/63F

The record for today at Birmingham is 77F. We will be very close.

The barometer is getting low as well:
Birmingham…29.86
Muscle Shoals…29.76
The low pressure center is centered west of Kansas City at this hour, with a minimum pressure of 994 millibars or 29.35 inches.

Category: Alabama's Weather, Severe Weather