Tropical Storm Warning Issued for Parts of Central Alabama, Watch Expanded

The NWS has changed the Tropical Storm Watch to a Tropical Storm Warning for a large part of Central Alabama, including Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. Winds will reach 30-40 mph in the warning area with gusts to 55 mph. This will down some trees and tree limbs and could cause power outages.

They also added Pickens, Fayette and Walker Counties to the Tropical Storm Watch. Winds will average 10-20 mph with gusts to 30 mph.

The NWS Birmingham maintains a flash flood watch as well for many counties in Central Alabama. 2-4 inches of rain is expected. The NWS in Huntsville also posted a Flash Flood watch for DeKalb, Jackson and Marshall Counties in Northeast Alabam.

Tropical storm force winds will reach Marengo County by 2 a.m. CDT tonight, Hale County by 4 a.m., Bibb and Tuscaloosa Counties by 6 a.m. and Shelby and Jefferson Counties as early at 7 a.m. Gadsden and Anniston could feel them by 10-11 a.m.

Areas from southern Tuscaloosa and Bibb back through Hale, Perry, Mareno, Dallas, Perry and Sumter Counties could experience winds of 40-50 mph with gusts to 60 mph. Marengo County could experience hurricane force gusts.

Hurricane Nate now has top winds of 80 mph as of the 4 a.m. advisory. It is now 400 miles south-southeast of Dauphin Island, moving rapidly NNW at 22 mph.

At this forward motion, it will be near the mouth of the Mississippi River by 8 p.m. CDT tonight and onshore along the Mississippi or Alabama Coast by 1 a.m.

It is forecast to be a 90 mph hurricane at that time but could be even stronger than that.

James has an outstanding post coming up in a minute about what to expect from Nate.

We will have continuous updates throughout the day here on the AlabamaWX blog.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS