I am sure our drought is angry. We have chipped away some more today on his hold on Alabama.
At 11:00 a.m., a big part of North, NW and West/Central Alabama was getting a break from the rain. By far, the heaviest rain extended from Cherokee County down through the East/Central counties of Clay and Randolph into Tallapoosa and East Montgomery Counties.
Some of the heaviest rain extended from near Centre in NE Alabama to Ashland and Lineville to east of Rockford and Wetumpka and south of Montgomery. Everything was moving east.
Alabama has gotten by with very little severe weather. The last warning issued in Alabama was at 9:12 this morning for Lowndes and Dallas Counties in Central Alabama.
The Storm Prediction Center still has Alabama in a Slight Risk area. So far today, they have posted no reports of damage, not only here, but in the other states.
Actually, there have been a lot more Flash Flood Warnings than anything else. Although much of West Alabama, as well as the north, is getting a break from the rain, we still must deal with a cold front that will come through later. It could possibly trigger a few more thunderstorms and it is not out of the question that there could be a severe thunderstorm warning.
This is a sharp cold front and it was located over North and NE Mississippi at 11:00 a.m. It was 71 degrees in Muscle Shoals, while it was 48 at Utica in extreme NW Mississippi. It was 49 in Memphis and in the upper 30s over South Missouri. Tuscaloosa had 71 as well as Montgomery.
The strong low-pressure area was over NE Mississippi and Middle Tennessee. Strong winds have been circulating around the low. The winds have been especially strong on the ridges across Alabama, even when no thunderstorms were nearby. These reported wind gusts from the ABC 33/40 skycams:
46 mph downtown Birmingham
43 mph Cullman
37 mph downtown Tuscaloosa
51 mph atop Mt. Cheaha
There have been some heavy rain amounts. We will have a complete roundup of those soon after 1:00 p.m. We will scan through all reports of our ABC 33/40 skywatchers to include those also. Vinemont, in North Cullman County, had already received well over an inch of rain before 10:00 a.m.
