Very Nice At Midday; Strong To Severe Storms Possible After Midnight

As we have reached the midday hour across Central Alabama, it is not a bad day weather-wise out there at all as skies are sunny across much of the area. We do have a few clouds over the northern parts of the area and some starting to move into the extreme western parts. It’s really nice as temperatures are in the lower 60s to the lower 70s across the area. Birmingham was at 65 degrees. The warm spot was Montgomery at 72 degrees. Cullman and Haleyville were tied as the cool spots at 61 degrees. Afternoon highs will continue to rise, reaching the mid-60s to the mid-70s.

The above animation is from the latest run of the HRRR valid from now until midnight tonight. We see that showers and thunderstorms will begin to form into a main squall line during the evening hours and will start moving into the northwest corner of the state by midnight. We may have a few showers or thunderstorms develop out ahead of that and move across portions of the area west of I-59 during the late afternoon into the evening, but much of the action will occur at midnight and after.

Locations west of a line from Blountsville to Birmingham to Demopolis remain in a Marginal Risk for severe storms mainly from midnight tonight through 7:00 am Wednesday morning. Isolated damaging wind gusts up to 60 MPH and a brief tornado or two are the main threats. While at this point, surface-based instability remains low, helicity and shear look to be rather high during the overnight hours along and ahead of the front. If the instability happens to come in a little higher, then we may have to worry about possibly being upgraded to a Slight Risk. Lows tonight will be in the upper 50s to the mid-60s.

After 7:00 am, the line of storms is expected to weaken and nearly dissipate before exiting the area on Wednesday evening. While thunderstorms can be expected over the south and southeastern parts of the area, the Storm Prediction Center does not have any part of Central Alabama in a risk of severe storms.

More updates to come throughout the day.

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