Early Afternoon in Alabama

Sort of a lull in the severe weather situation early this afternoon. As of 12:30 p.m., there were no severe thunderstorm or tornado watches anywhere in the USA.

However, the risk is still there and some new watches will almost certainly be issued this afternoon that could possibly include parts of Alabama. Throughout the morning, most of the action has been close to the Gulf Coast, especially around Pensacola and Ft. Walton. A tornado touched down in downtown Pensacola causing some damage, including damage to the main shopping mall in the city. Scroll down and see the post we made from the 33/40 newsroom and AP wire, plus some more information even below that post.

Intense thunderstorms continue to move along the Alabama/NW Florida coast. Some of the stronger ones were in the Ft. Walton/Panama City area producing extremely heavy rain. Even by midmorning, a number of communities had received well over an inch of rain and Jackson, in SW Alabama, had received more than 4 inches.

Doppler radar shows a new line of thunderstorms off to the west and NW. The line of storms extends from SE Louisiana up through Central Mississippi to near Columbus, Mississippi and into NW Alabama. It is not a solid line yet, but the thunderstorms are growing. The individual thunderstorms are moving NE, but the entire is shifting slowly toward the east.

Here in Central Alabama, look for more thunderstorms as the afternoon goes on, but especially tonight as a cold front approaches from the west. Our best estimate is that this cold front will reach the Birmingham area between midnight and 3:00 a.m.

A nice weekend ahead. Mostly sunny and much lower humidity with cool nights. It now appears that our rain event early next week could be the most extensive one in a long time.

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