Potential For Severe Storms Throughout The Day

Scott Martin | April 8, 2019 @ 7:30 am

At 7:20 am, we are free from any watches and warnings but we need to go ahead and be ready for a warning at any time. We have already had three tornado warnings this morning from storms moving through the area this morning and we are probably not done for the day.

The SPC has two parts of Central Alabama in a Slight Risk for severe storms while the rest of the area is in a Marginal Risk. The first Slight Risk area includes locations west of a line from Tuscaloosa to West Jefferson to just east of Moulton. The second area includes locations east of a line from just east of Valley Head to Leesburg to Heflin to Huguley. All modes of severe weather will be possible throughout the day from roughly 9:00 am to 9:00 pm… tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds up to 60 MPH.

Timing for the threat of severe storms will be from now until roughly 9:00 pm, with the western parts of the area from now until 9:00 pm, the central parts from 12:00 pm until roughly 5:00 pm, and the eastern parts from roughly 2:00 pm until 7:00 pm. As you can see from earlier, it is the middle of our Spring Severe Weather Season so you have to expect the unexpected.

Instability values are already over 500 J/kg and topping out just over 1000 J/kg in some locations. There is already a good amount of helicity in place, so the potential for rotating updrafts is already in place. Significant tornado parameters are already approaching and exceeding 1.0 in the northern parts of the area.

Rainfall amounts will be highest over the northern parts of the state while much of Central Alabama will see around 0.25 inches in the southern parts of the area to as high as 2.00 inches in the northwestern corner of the area.

Have your severe weather safety plan and safety kits ready to go just in case your location goes under a warning. Make sure you have fresh batteries in your NOAA WeatherRadio and flashlights and be sure to have your smartphones fully charged with the ABC 33/40 app so you can watch live tornado coverage in your safe place.

We’ll have updates throughout the day. Stay tuned.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS, Severe Weather

About the Author (Author Profile)

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.