Rain Invading The Western Location Just After Midnight

Moderate to heavy rainfall has pushed into the west and northwestern parts of Central Alabama as we have made it just past the midnight hour. At this point, no stronger or severe storms… Just some moderate to heavy rainfall over portions of the area.

Here is the latest from NWS Birmingham on the potential severe weather threat:

We’re continuing our expectations for tonight as previously advertised. The cluster of storms in central MS will be watched over the next several hours as we expect strengthening of the low-level jet. For now, the entire system has remained generally disorganized, so we’ll see how it goes. Best chances still remain north of I-20 where best shear will likely setup, but instability drops off farther north. Regardless, we’ll watch it, and keep an eye on any urban/small stream flooding as heavier storms move through. We have saturated grounds across a good portion of the area with all the recent heavy rain.

SPC continues a Marginal Risk of severe storms throughout the rest of the nighttime hours and up to 7:00 am this morning. After that, SPC continues a Marginal Risk for the eastern two-thirds of the area until the threat ends before midday today.

Still no change in the expected windows for stronger to severe storms across Central Alabama. Here they are broke down into four sections:

• From locations along and west of a line from Geiger to Jasper to Vinemont – now to 4:00 am.
• East of that to a line stretching from Orrville to Chelsea to Gadsden – 3:00 am to 7:00 am.
• East of that to a line stretching from Hayneville to Alexander City to Ranburne – 6:00 am to 10:00 am.
• East of that to the AL/GA state line – only isolated strong storms possible but not likely at this point.

One side note… NWS Birmingham has added Shelby County to the Freeze Watch that goes into effect on Friday at 1:00 am and is expected to expire at 9:00 am, joining Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Etowah, Fayette, Jefferson, Lamar, Marion, Randolph, St. Clair, Talladega, Walker, and Winston counties.