Busy Afternoon and Night Ahead

Go ahead and make sure you are ready for active weather this afternoon and evening as severe thunderstorms form ahead of a cold front in a warm, moist and unstable airmass.

Wind shear values are low, so nothing is expected to get out of hand, but intense storms could produce wind gusts to severe limits (58 mph) and marginally severe hail (3/4 of an inch = penny size.)

You can bet the lightning will be prolific and very heavy rains will be a problem in places that get prolonged rain. A flash flood watch is in effect until Sunday morning for all of Central and North Alabama.

Right now, the earlier complex of storms that affected the Birmingham area is moving through East Alabama toward Georgia, but more storms were firing to the west southwest of Birmingham. These will affect Central Alabama later. Still seeing flooding reports out of Randolph County…north northeast of Roanoke [Randolph Co, AL] emergency mngr reports FLASH FLOOD at 12:40 PM CDT — county road 45 is washed out at Rockstand Road. Rain has diminished a bit, but more moderate rain is set to move across the county again in the next hour or so.

A big line of strong and intensifying thunderstorms was over North Mississippi and western Tennessee ahead of the cold front. These will move through later this evening.

The airmass over northeastern Mississippi and Northwest Alabama is becoming very unstable, and this will fuel the developing storms from East Central Mississippi into West Central Alabama as well as powering the line later.

Some of these storms are moving into Lamar and Pickens Counties right now…heads up for very heavy rain, gusty winds and lots of lightning. Flash flood warnings have already been required for Lowndes and Oktibbeha Counties in the Columbus and Starkville areas.

Breaks in the clouds are helping to destabilize the atmosphere…

So, keep an eye to the sky and your Weatheradio on alert through tonight, and be ready to move to a place of safety if a storm approaches or a warning is issued.

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