Strong Storms Will Make it Into Alabama

As expected, storms have intensified late this afternoon over Central and southwestern Mississippi ahead of a strong cold front, triggering severe thunderstorm warnings.

At 5:22 p.m., winds gusted to 68 mph at Jackson’s Hawkins Field. Winds have gusted to 48 mph at Jackson International Airport. Trees have been reported downed in Edwards and Raymond as well.

Half inch hail was reported at Fairhaven in Madison County north of Jackson.

A tree was reported down in Vicksburg at 4:35 p.m.

There is not much instability (less than 500 j/kg) and low level lapse rates are weak, but there is quite a bit of wind shear and the updrafts that the atmosphere is managing to send up are bringing it to the surface in spots.

There is a strong indication of damaging winds over Leake County as a bowing structure moves toward Neshoba County and Philadelphia. There is probably some small hail in that storm as well.

The storms will weaken as they move into Alabama, but could remain strong into parts of Lamar, Fayette, Tuscaloosa, Greene, Hale, Bibb and Sumter Counties and points south, generally south of a line from Fayette to Brent to Selma. We probably will see a couple of warnings in this area.

The storms will reach West Alabama on the following time schedule:
…Pickens County before 7 p.m.
…Sumter County before 7:30 p.m.

They will reach Tuscaloosa by 9 p.m. and Birmingham by 10 p.m.

North and North Central Alabama groundhogs may not see their shadow in the morning, but they might be so terrified by snow flurries that they scurry back into their comfy dens. Snow flurries will be possible before 6 a.m. in places north of US-82 and west of I-65 and before 9 a.m. in places east of I-65 and north of I-20.

Category: Alabama's Weather, Severe Weather