Severe Weather Threat For West Alabama Late Tonight

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BEAUTIFUL AFTERNOON: Hard to believe are taking severe weather late tonight, as most of Alabama is bathed in bright autumn sunshine this afternoon with temperatures in the 70s.

But, to the northwest, a severe thunderstorm watch is up for parts of Missouri and Illinois until 8pm CDT, and storms will develop southward in coming hours down into Arkansas and Louisiana.

SPC has expanded the “slight risk” to cover parts of West Alabama late tonight; the risk extends to the west, and the higher severe weather probabilities are along the Mississippi River from Memphis down to Vicksburg later this afternoon and tonight.

Here are some Q/A on tonight’s severe weather risk in Alabama….

WHEN? The main window for severe weather in Alabama will come tonight into early tomorrow morning, from about 11:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m.

WHERE? The greatest risk of severe weather in our state is along and west of a line from Huntsville to Tuscaloosa to Demopolis. Some of the communities with a risk of severe storms late tonight include Sulligent, Haleyville, Hamilton, Russellville, Gordo, and Livingston. The storms are expected to weaken as they move into East Alabama after 3:00 a.m.

RISKS? The primary risk in Alabama will come from damaging straight line winds along the QLCS (quasi-linear convective system)… although one or two isolated tornadoes can’t be ruled out with rather high low level storm relative helicity values over Northwest Alabama. The main limiting factor is the lack of instability; surface based CAPE values remain very low through this event.

REMEMBER: With late night events like this, it is very, very important to have a good way of hearing severe weather warnings. It should NEVER be an outdoor warning siren; those are a last resort, and you won’t hear one on your home or business. The baseline is a NOAA Weather Radio, but smart phone apps like MyWarn and iMap WeatherRadio are excellent, and are also polygon based.

TOMORROW: The sky becomes sunny tomorrow as a new surge of cool, dry air moves into Alabama. Should be a beautiful day.

FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: More great weather, with sunny pleasant days and clear chilly nights. Highs in the 70s, lows in the 40s. The dry weather will last into the first part of next week.

FOOTBALL WEATHER: Excellent high school football weather this week, clear and cool tomorrow and Friday night with temperatures dropping into the 50s by the second half of the games; you will need a jacket.

Alabama and Auburn are playing in Tennessee this weekend; Auburn will take on Vanderbilt in Nashville (11:21 a.m. kickoff), while Alabama will play the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville at 6:00 p.m. The weather will be excellent at both game sites; for the Auburn game temperatures will rise through the 60s with a sunny sky. Alabama’s game will kick off with a temperature near 60 degrees, then falling through the 50s during the game. Maybe even 40s by the final whistle.

TROPICS: Rafael in the North Atlantic is becoming post-tropical, and the rest of the Atlantic basin is quiet.

WEATHER BRAINS: Don’t forget you can listen to our weekly 90 minute netcast anytime on the web, or on iTunes. This is the show all about weather featuring many familiar voices, including our meteorologists here at ABC 33/40.

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Look for the next Weather Xtreme video here by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow… and stay with the blog tonight for updates on the Alabama thunderstorm situation.

Tags: storms

Category: Alabama's Weather