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Weather Xtreme: Claudette Forms & Will Affect Central Alabama Today & Early Sunday

| June 19, 2021 @ 6:07 am

With the 4 am update and an hour or so after making landfall just to the south-southwest of Houma, Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center has upgraded Potential Tropical Cyclone 3 to Tropical Storm Claudette. The storm appears to be a more sheared storm than your classic tropical storm as the heavier bands with the stronger winds occurring on the eastern side.

Claudette will turn more to the east-northeast later today and move across the southern portions of Central Alabama starting late tonight and throughout the daylight hours on Sunday, before accelerating and moving offshore of North Carolina on Monday. Forecasts now have Claudette reforming into a tropical storm by early Tuesday morning.

For Central Alabama, we’ll continue to have the threat of heavy rainfall throughout the day today, some of which may cause some flooding issues, especially south of the I-20 corridor. The latest projected rainfall totals show anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rain through Sunday evening for much of Central Alabama with some localized amounts of 4 to 6 inches, especially south of the I-20 corridor. North of that, rainfall amounts really taper off to 1/4 to 2 inches for the northern parts of Central Alabama. A Flash Flood Watch goes into effect at 7 am this morning for a good portion of Central Alabama, and is set to expire at 7 pm Sunday evening.

Along with the heavy rain threat, a few brief spin-up tornadoes will be possible over the southern portions of the area, and the Storm Prediction Center has a Marginal Risk up for locations along and south of a line from just south of Demopolis to just north of Clanton to Roanoke throughout your Saturday.

As Claudette moves through the area, we’ll see that rain will be widespread and likely for nearly the entire state later this morning, before we start to see a little dryness start to work into the southwestern parts of the area this afternoon. The activity looks to be more abundant over the northern half of the system tonight with some heavier banding set up over the southeastern parts. Once we reach the overnight hours, much of the activity will have moved over into Georgia, leaving us with scattered showers on the western side of the center. By daybreak on Sunday, only the eastern half of the area looks to be dealing with any shower activity of Claudette. By midday, we can officially say bye to the rain from Claudette as she will be out of here. A few scattered showers will remain possible for the rest of the day, but much of the area will remain dry.

After Claudette, our focus will then shift to a cold front that will be moving in our direction from the northwest on Monday. Out ahead of the front, we could have scattered shower and thunderstorm development across much of Central Alabama, some of which may become briefly strong to severe over the northern parts of the area. A marginal risk is up for locations along and north of a line from Ethelsville (NW Pickens Co.) to Black Bottom (S Cullman Co.) to Fort Payne (E-C DeKalb Co.). Damaging winds up to 60 mph will be the main threat, but we’ll get a better look at that after Claudette moves out. Highs will be in the mid to upper 80s.

The front will finally push through the area on Tuesday and the shower and storm threat will come to an end for much of the area by the late afternoon to early evening. After that, the front appears to wash out over the extreme southern parts of the state. Highs will be in the mid-70s to the lower 80s.

Wednesday will feature a few scattered showers and storms over the southern half of the area close to that washed-out front, while the northern half looks to stay rain-free. Highs will be in the lower to mid-80s.

Thursday will be a mainly dry day across Central Alabama with plenty of sunshine, but there will be enough moisture worked in that a few isolated to scattered afternoon showers and storms will be possible. Highs will be in the mid to upper 80s.

Another impulse will be moving in our direction from the north-northwest on Friday that may bring a decent chance of showers and storms to the extreme northern parts of the area late in the day, but much of the rest of Central Alabama will stay dry with only a small chance of an afternoon shower or storm. Highs will be in the mid to upper 80s.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS, Severe Weather, Tropical, Weather Xtreme Videos

About the Author ()

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.

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