Mid-Day Update

The SPC maintains much of Central Alabama in a slight risk for severe weather today. Moderate risk still extends into our northwestern counties. A favorable environment is developing across the Lower Mississippi River Valley for some tornadoes to develop; some of these tornadoes could be strong.

A strong cold front continues to push east today. This front is interacting with a very warm and moist air mass. The uplift provided by the front continues to allow thunderstorms to develop. Severe thunderstorms have been and will continue to develop today.To our north and west, numerous tornado watches remain in effect from the Great Lakes down into Southern Arkansas. We anticipate additional watches to be  issued east through this afternoon and into tonight.

Currently, there are just a hand full of severe weather warnings along the line, but we can expect that to change through the afternoon as daytime heating will lead to greater instability out ahead of the front. Additional thunderstorms will develop with this storm system. Radar shows the heaviest activity to the west of Detroit, down through Indianapolis, Cape Girardeau , Little Rock and now east of Shreveport.

The timing for Alabama has remained consistent through the morning. The line will continue to move east and looks to be entering Northwest Alabama between 10-11 PM this evening. It should begin to impact the Birmingham metro by 3-4AM and should continue its eastward movement through the morning hours. It looks as though will we see a squall line with the main threat being damaging winds and the chance for some tornadoes.

The newest model runs will be out shortly and we are waiting to see what additional data they will provide us to our threats and timing. Once we have that, we will have a more detailed discussion of what we expect overnight.

Since the worst of the severe weather will impact Central Alabama during the overnight hour, make sure you have ways to receive severe weather alerts. Do NOT rely on outdoor sirens.

Category: Alabama's Weather