Quite a few showers and thunderstorms in progress early this afternoon, mainly in two areas.
A low-pressure area moving inland from the Gulf of Mexico has caused an increase in showers and storms over the SE much of the morning. Early this afternoon, the heaviest showers extended south and east of Montgomery and over into Lee, Chambers and Tallapoosa Counties. Lee County does not need any rain after getting some flash flooding in the Auburn/Opelika area two days ago. The heaviest rain in that glob of showers was over Bullock and Macon Counties extending east into Russell County. Movement was toward the NNE.
Meanwhile, in far North Alabama, sort of a line of strong storms extended from Franklin County east across Lawrence and Morgan Counties to near Huntsville and Scottsboro. These strong storms were working their way very slowly toward the north.
National Weather Service in Huntsville has issued several Significant Weather Alerts for the strongest storm. Bottom line: if a strong storm approaches your area consider the possibility of wind gusts to around 40 or 50 mph, dangerous lightning and downpours of rain.
Further south, a strong thunderstorm was entering SW Fayette County and still some others were approaching Sumter County from Eastern Mississippi moving toward Livingston. No moderate to strong showers within a 40-mile radius of Birmingham as of 1:15.
There is considerable lightning with the extreme North Alabama storms and those approaching SW Alabama, but not a great deal of lightning with that wider area of showers and some thunderstorms south and east of Montgomery.
