Tornado Watch Soon

Look for our tornado watch sooner than later…

One concern is that people over North Central and East Central Alabama might not pay as much attention because it doesn’t “feel” like tornado weather. Temperatures and dewpoints in places like Jasper and Anniston are in the 50s, not the normally muggy feeling you have before a lot of tornado outbreaks.

But today is not a classic setup. We will be dealing with a snaky boundary that has warm, moist air to the south and relatively cooler air north of it. It will waver back and forth north to south as disturbances ripple along it. A big problem will be when storms form in the warm sector and cross this boundary. The spin right near the boundary will greatly enhance the tornado threat with those storms. So south of the boundary, supercell storms could produce tornadoes, and any that cross the boundary will be even more likely to do so.

So please be alert through the afternoon over all of North Central and Central Alabama. Areas south of a line from Hamilton to Cullman to Gadsden to Piedmont south to US-82 need to be especially alert for the new tornado watch and all warnings this afternoon and tonight.

000
ACUS11 KWNS 261625
SWOMCD
SPC MCD 261625
GAZ000-ALZ000-MSZ000-261800-

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0276
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
1125 AM CDT SAT MAR 26 2011

AREAS AFFECTED…ECNTRL/NERN MS…CNTRL/NRN AL…WCNTRL GA

CONCERNING…SEVERE POTENTIAL…TORNADO WATCH LIKELY

VALID 261625Z – 261800Z

BAND OF CUMULUS OVER CNTRL MS APPEARS TO BE DEEPENING WITHIN A ZONE
OF WEAKLY CONFLUENT LOW-LEVEL FLOW AND WHERE THE BOUNDARY LAYER WAS
HEATING INTO THE MID-UPPER 70S. THIS MAY BE THE START OF AN ACTIVE
AFTERNOON/EVENING AS THE STORMS GRADUALLY EVOLVE ENE INTO CNTRL/NRN
AL AND WCNTRL GA.

THE DEEP LAYER FLOW IS GENERALLY UNIDIRECTIONAL WSWLY…THOUGH SPEED
SHEAR IS MORE THAN SUFFICIENT FOR SUPERCELLS. MID-LEVEL LAPSE RATES
IN EXCESS OF 7 DEG C PER KM AND MAGNITUDE OF VERTICAL SHEAR WILL
YIELD VERY LARGE HAIL WITH ANY STORM. AS STORMS APPROACH THE BACKED
LOW-LEVEL FLOW IN VICINITY OF THE WARM/WEDGE FRONT ACROSS CNTRL/NRN
AL AND WCNTRL GA…CONCERN IS FOR DISCRETE SUPERCELLS TO PRODUCE A
FEW TORNADOES.

ALTHOUGH FIRST SIGNS OF INITIATION ARE LIMITED TO MS…EXPECT THAT
ADDITIONAL DISCRETE STORMS WILL FORM IN THE WARM SECTOR ACROSS
CNTRL/SRN AL AND WCNTRL GA THROUGH THE AFTERNOON.

..RACY.. 03/26/2011

…PLEASE SEE WWW.SPC.NOAA.GOV FOR GRAPHIC PRODUCT…

Category: Alabama's Weather, Severe Weather