A Brief Check On Our Weather Situation Just Before 2:00 PM

At 1:40 pm, we have an MCS moving through the extreme southeastern portions of Central Alabama that is bringing very heavy rainfall and dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning to mainly Russell and Barbour counties. That activity will continue to push into Georgia and should be out of the area within an hour or so.

Now our attention focuses back to the west as showers and storms are building over the central and eastern parts of Mississippi that will be moving into the western parts of Central Alabama within the next hour or two, especially in Lamar, Pickens, and Sumter counties. No warnings with these storms, but as conditions continue to destabilize over the area, the potential of storms becoming strong to severe rises.

Where the showers and storms occurred earlier over the southern parts of the area, instability has been decreased a good bit, but where the air has been untouched by storms this morning, CAPE values are topping out over 2,500 J/kg. With the stalled front over the extreme northwestern parts of Alabama, there will be enough lift along with the instability for storms to form and persist for a good while.

No change in the risk levels for today after the 11:20 am update from the Storm Prediction Center. A Slight Risk continues for the western-third of Central Alabama while a Marginal Risk continues for the rest of the area. Damaging winds up to 60 MPH and hail up to quarter-size continue to be the main threats. We don’t expect any tornadoes today, but the threat is not zero, so we’ll have to keep on a close watch. The window for stronger to severe storms across the area goes from now through 9:00 pm tonight.

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