Alabama 811 | Know What's Below.

Severe Storms Continue To Push Southward; Over 100k Without Power

| June 28, 2018 @ 4:41 pm

The line of strong to severe thunderstorms has now pushed down to Tuscaloosa to Montgomery to Union Springs in the southern half of the area, bringing with it strong and damaging winds up to 60-70 MPH, almost continuous cloud-to-ground lightning, very heavy rainfall, and some small hail at times. NWS Birmingham is issuing Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for everyone along and ahead of the line of storms as it moves southward, as there has been numerous reports of damage from locations that the line has already passed through.

The above image was last updated just before 4:00 PM and updates once per hour, but this shows that there is still plenty of convective potential energy for the storms to feed off of as they continue to progress southward. The instability values continue to run in the 2500-4000 J/kg range out ahead of the line, while instability values diminish greatly as the air becomes rain-cooled and more stable.

This image shows the potential energy for downdrafts (Downdraft CAPE or D-CAPE), and where the values are above 1000 J/kg are where the highest potential from damaging winds are located. As you can see, the potential remains for locations along and ahead of the line of storms.

Damage reports continue to flow in as these storms continue to push southward through the southern parts of Central Alabama. There are simply just to many to list as numerous areas have been hit pretty hard by damaging winds. Trees and power lines have been downed, along with damage to several structures and vehicles. Over 128,000 people throughout the state are without power as of 4:00 PM according to Alabama Power.

With the current forward motion of the line, the strongest storms should be out of the southern parts of Central Alabama by 6:00-7:00 PM, with rain and a few embedded thunderstorms lingering for a few more hours after that.

One interesting tidbit of information that just came in… as the line of storms moved through North Alabama, not a single drop of rain fell at the Muscle Shoals reporting station (ASOS). All reporting stations nearby did.

SPC just issued a new Mesoscale Discussion and a Severe Thunderstorm Watch will be coming soon for South Alabama and Northwest Florida… including the beaches from Fort Morgan over to Destin.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS

About the Author ()

Scott Martin is an operational meteorologist, professional graphic artist, musician, husband, and father. Not only is Scott a member of the National Weather Association, but he is also the Central Alabama Chapter of the NWA president. Scott is also the co-founder of Racecast Weather, which provides forecasts for many racing series across the USA. He also supplies forecasts for the BassMaster Elite Series events including the BassMaster Classic.

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