The latest warning issued by the National Weather Service in Birmingham was for Cherokee County in NE Alabama. A line of strong to severe thunderstorms was moving out of NW Georgia into Cherokee County and moving NW toward Centre and Cedar Bluff.
NWS says this storm could produce winds over 60 mph and it was moving toward the NW at 20 mph. It may also affect not only Cedar Bluff and Centre, but near Gaylesville and Leesburg and eventually to Sand Rock by 7:40.
ELSEWHERE
* Severe Thunderstorm Warnings continue until 7:15 for Chilton and Shelby Counties, mainly the west and south part of Shelby County.
* A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was canceled for Blount County and the one for Hale County in West Alabama ended at 6:45. Still some strong storms over SW Hale County near the Black Warrior River and the Greene County line.
* Thunderstorms across Jefferson and Tuscaloosa Counties have diminished.
SPECIFIC REPORTS
* At 5:57 p.m., wind damage was reported by the public in downtown Birmingham. Tents that were set up for City Stages were blown down.
* At 5:45 p.m., a ham radio operator reported very large hail in Center Point the size of quarters.
* At 6:10 p.m., the official weather observer on duty at Birmingham Airport reported hail the size of quarters.
* At 5:53 p.m., hail the size of half dollars was reported on Center Point Parkway. (That is 1-1/4 inches in diameter.)
* A Flash Flood Warning continues for Tuscaloosa County even though the storms have diminished. At the 33/40 skycam atop the county courthouse in downtown Tuscaloosa, 2.63 inches of rain flooded the city. Most of that fell within one hour. Peak wiind gusts were clocked at 48 mph. At 7:00 this evening, it was a cool 70 degrees in downtown Tuscaloosa.
* The Montgomery skycam was also indicating heavy rain with the temperature down to 76 and 0.35 inches of rain so far.
Stay tuned for further updates. We will try to get together a stack of rain amounts to post later this evening, probably around 8:00 when we will have most of the reports in.
It has been another busy-as-a-bee afternoon.
