Severe Thunderstorm Watch Issued, Warnings Soon for Marion/Winston

A line of rapidly intensifying thunderstorms is dropping south out of the Tennessee Valley at this hour. The main activity is moving into Marion and Winston Counties and a severe thunderstorm warning will be required shortly for parts of those counties.

Colbert, Franklin and Lawrence Counties are already under warnings.

Another strong storm was moving into Cullman County.

Others are over Lamar County Alabama and Monroe County Mississippi.

All of these storms will continue dropping east southeast at 15-20 mph.

A severe thunderstorm watch has just been issued for much of Central Alabama, as well as eastern Mississippi into western Georgia. It goes until 9 p.m. CDT.

Central Alabama Counties include:

Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton, Clay, Cleburne, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore, Etowah, Fayette, Greene, Hale, Jefferson, Lamar, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Marion, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Randolph, Russell, Shelby, St. Clair, Sumter, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Walker and Winston.

North Alabama Counties are:

Cullman, Franklin and Lawrence

Instabilities are very high across Alabama, with CAPE values running from 4,000-5,500 joules/kg. Regular readers know that is very high for our area. Mid level lapse rates are very high, especially over West Central and Southwest Alabama, where the SPC has posted a slight risk of severe weather to go with the marginal risk that covers the rest of the state.

Areas from Reform to Tuscaloosa to Clanton to Montgomery to FLorala are basically in the slight risk area.

In addition, there is drier air at the mid levels, which is very conducive to damaging wind. There will also be torrential rains and very dangerous lightning.

Monitor the weather carefully across Central Alabama through the afternoon and evening hours.

Category: Severe Weather