Significant Weather Alerts all over the place. It is very difficult to keep up with all of them. A Significant Weather Alert is short of a Severe Thunderstorm Warning and they usually indicate strong gusty winds, possible hail and heavy downpours. Significant Weather Alerts are not in effect for these areas:
* For Talladega County until 2:00 p.m.
* For Calhoun County until 2:00 p.m.
* For Cherokee County until 2:30 p.m.
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NWS/Birmingham issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Calhoun County in East Alabama until 2:15. This includes Anniston, Oxford, Jacksonville and Ft. McClellan as well as Weaver and Saks. In addition to large hail and damaging winds, continuous lightning is occurring with this storm. Winds may gust to 60 mph or greater. It is moving east at 25 mph.
At 1:45, a broad zone of thunderstorms continued from far SW Alabama northeastward all the way into NE Alabama. Some of the strongest thunderstorms, producing the heaviest rain, were over Talladega and Clay Counties. Some of the heaviest rain of all was over Calhoun County approaching the Anniston-Oxford area.
Well to the NW of those storms, a second line of thunderstorms extended from extreme North Mississippi across Central Tennessee. The leading edge was approaching the Waterloo area in the NW corner of Alabama.
Severe Thunderstorm Watches continue for extreme North Mississippi and almost all of Tennessee.
The Storm Prediction Center also has the north third of Alabama under a Slight Risk of severe weather for this afternoon and tonight. That risk extends down to about the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham-Gadsden area.
SOME LATE REPORTS
* Lots of thunder and dark clouds approaching Jacksonville
* 0.43 rain at Greystone Farms
* 0.10 in East Trussville (reported by Jay Shelley)
* From Ashland, in Clay County, Mike McCormick reports heavy showers, loud thunder and a lot of lightning
