A number of severe thunderstorm warnings were in effect very early this morning; since then, the storms have calmed down, but there are still a few heavy rumblers out there around Birmingham and just south of Centre as of 5:45 AM.
A Severe Thunderstorm has one or all of the following weather conditions: 1.00″ diameter hail (or larger), wind gusts of 58 miles per hour or higher, or a tornado (usually if there is a tornado it’s upgraded to a formal tornado warning, though). Cool, stable air near the ground kept this morning’s storms elevated, which means they don’t have an updraft that begins at the surface (the entire storm cycle is going on over a thousand feet above the ground). The main impact from an elevated storm is just the precipitation; this morning, that precipitation fell as rain and some substantial hail! A few reports of quarter-sized hail came in before 3 AM, but here are some pictures showing slightly smaller hail from Calhoun and St. Clair Counties.
-Jason
Follow me on Twitter: @simpson3340
