Mississippi Getting Soaked, Tornado Watch to our West, Alabama Mostly Dry For Now

That persistent heavy rain band over eastern Mississippi has been unable to edge into Alabama this morning. It has been putting some tremendous rainfall amounts down in eastern Mississippi, including 3.08 since midnight at Newton, 4.51 since midnight near Calhoun, 5.61 inches at Hebron in Jones County, and 4.07 inches since midnight at Oak Grove near Hattiesburg.

There have been reports of flooding from Jones and Forrest counties in southern Mississippi. Two feet of water covers Jackson Ave in the town of Petal.

A tornado watch is now in effect for much of southeastern Louisiana north of the Lake and southern Mississippi, including Jackson, Vicksburg, and McComb. A couple of severe thunderstorm warnings are lined up along I-55 between Hammond and McComb. There is concern that a tornado could form near McComb from the storm that is approaching there.

A possible tornado touched down early this morning near Watson, Louisiana in Livingston Parish, causing damage along Sims Road.

Sunshine is beginning to break out across all of Alabama except for western sections and this will be energizing the atmosphere. Instability values will be rising, but convective temperatures are pretty high (92F) based on the morning sounding from the NWS in Calera. That means storms will need some help from a boundary or convergence from one of the outer bands of Barry to get going.

Some of that higher precipitable water air over Mississippi is forecast by the models to edge into Alabama later today, and any storms that do get going will have the potential to produce heavy rain. Bulk wind shear is light, so storms will tend not to be organized. There is not much low-level helicity either, so the tornado threat is low.

Highs today will be in the lower 80s along the western border with Mississippi, middle to upper 80s in the I-65 corridor and in the upper 80s to lower 90s over the east.

Winds are light over Alabama now but could become a bit breezier as we go through the day.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS