Strong Storms Over West Alabama

We have a good bit of storm activity that has moved into the western parts of Central Alabama. The radar image above from 8:15 AM shows a line of showers and thunderstorms stretching from Florence and Tuscumbia, do to the south through Hamilton and Reform, and ending down in Demopolis.

This cluster of storms is putting down very heavy downpours that have led to a couple of Areal Flood Advisories. One for central Pickens County until 9:45 AM, and another for all of Marion and Lamar counties until 11:15 AM. Excessive runoff from these heavy thunderstorms will cause some localized flooding of small creeks and streams, along with poor drainage areas and roadways. If you don’t have to be out on the roads in these storms, my advice would be wait until they are over.

Along with these very heavy downpours, these storms are producing tremendous amounts of cloud-to-ground lightning. If you are in the path of these stronger storms, please take cover indoors. If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to the parent storm to be struck by lightning. When thunder roars, go indoors.

The latest HRRR show these storms quickly diminishing to just light to moderate rainfall just before noon, and completely gone by the early afternoon hours. We do note that the latest update from NWS Birmingham says that the complex of storms appears to be developing into a Mesoscale Convective Vortex (MCV) and that there is the possibility that these storms could continue developing to the east. Torrential downpours will cause some localized flooding issues.

We’ll keep an eye on these storms throughout the morning. If any warnings or advisories are issued, you will see those almost instantaneously on the blog, so just keep checking back in with us through the morning.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS