A Brief Check On Our Weather Just Before 5:00 PM

As of 4:48 pm, the main focus of the rainfall has now shifted well north of the I-59 corridor, now mainly focused over the extreme northern parts of Central Alabama and up over much of North Alabama. No lightning in North/Central Alabama at this point, but we do see some just over the state line in Mississippi, close to Starkville and West Point.

No severe weather watches or warnings are in effect at this point across the southeast but is a large Areal Flood Advisory in effect for portions of Central Alabama.

Tuscaloosa has set a new daily maximum rainfall total as of 4:32 pm today as 2.89 inches, breaking the old record of 2.88 inches set back in 2017. The new record will more than likely continue to climb as more rain is expected to fall later tonight.

Earlier today, we had reports of flooding from near Tuscaloosa and down in Homewood. We just received reports of flooding on County Road 113 just south of US-411 in Cherokee County.

An Areal Flood Advisory just expired for portions of Tuscaloosa, Shelby, Greene, Hale, Jefferson, Sumter, Pickens, and Bibb counties at 4:45 pm.

An Areal Flood Advisory continues until 7:45 pm for portions of Walker, Fayette, and Lamar counties.

The Storm Prediction Center continues a Slight Risk is for locations in Central Alabama along and west of a line from just east of Belk (Fayette Co.) to Coker (Tuscaloosa Co.) to just west of Forkland (Greene Co.). The Marginal Risk includes locations in North Alabama along and south of a line from Vina (Franklin Co.) to Meridianville (Madison Co.), while excluding locations north of a line from Hytop to Ider (Jackson Co.). The Marginal Risk also includes all of Central Alabama west of a line from Sand Rock (Cherokee Co.) to Riverside (St. Clair Co.) to Benton (Lowndes Co.).

The main window for stronger to severe storms continues across the risk locations from now through 10:00 pm tonight. The main risks will be from isolated damaging wind gusts up to 60 MPH and a brief spinup tornado or two. We’ll have to watch over the western and southwestern parts of the area as temperatures are expected to be in the lower to mid-60s just ahead of the cold front and will be climbing until the front moves through your location. Dewpoints will be climbing into the mid-60s as well. The good news is that surface-based instability looks to be very low at best, staying below 500 J/kg. But as they say with these winter-type systems, it doesn’t take much instability when there is high shear involved.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS, Severe Weather