Watching Storms in Eastern Mississippi, Eastern Texas

Two areas of concern as we go through the afternoon here in Alabama.

The first area is thunderstorms over eastern Mississippi. They extend from just southwest of Corinth to west of Tupelo to near Houston to Eupora then to west of Durant and on to Yazoo City.

These storms are forming along a stationary frontal boundary and feeding on moist, unstable air to the south. CAPE values south of the boundary exceed 2,000 joules/kg and dewpoints are in the middle and upper 60s. Temperatures are in the middle and upper 70s. Partly are partly sunny to mostly sunny across the area, continuing to heat up the atmosphere.

A few of the storms have become severe briefly and severe thunderstorm warnings were needed for a time. Right now there are no warnings in effect, but the storms approaching Amory have lots of lightning and have shown signs of hail. They also produced wind damage near Saboulga in Calhoun County, Mississippi just after 1 p.m. A few trees were reported to be down along with power lines.

Large hail could be possible with the stronger storms. Egg-sized hail was just reported at Lexington MS in Holmes County in the Mississippi Delta.

This complex of storms will reach Lamar and Marion Counties around 3-3:30 p.m.

The only factor limiting intensification is the absence of decent wind shear. The wind shear is stronger over northeastern Mississippi and extreme northwestern Alabama, so as the storms work into better shear they could intensify.

The SPC reported earlier that they may issue a severe thunderstorm watch for parts of Mississippi, western and northwestern Alabama and southern Tennessee.

Back to the southwest, powerful thunderstorms are over much of southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana. A new severe thunderstorm watch was just issued for these areas. There is a tornado warning now southwest of Lufkin TX. Large areas are under severe thunderstorm warnings. These storms will work into Alabama late tonight. They should weaken before getting here, but still could be strong to severe.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS