Sorry for the break in coverage. Our weather blog became overloaded with heavy traffic and we could not access it to update.
A Tornado Warning that was in effect for parts of Shelby, Talladega and extreme South St. Clair County expired at 10:45. A tornado was reported near Chelsea, but we do not know the extent of damage.
Radar reports at 10:50 a.m. show that the line of strong thunderstorms has now advanced eastward rather quickly into Eastern Talladega County near the Clay County line and out of SE Shelby County into NE Chilton and NW Coosa Counties. Torrential rain all along that line of storms.
Moderate to heavy rain is also across South Tuscaloosa County and especially over North Pickens County in North/Central Alabama.
We believe that most of St. Clair, Jefferson, Walker and Fayette Counties will get a break of several hours from the more intense weather, but the event is not over by any means.
We will not be rid of these showers and thunderstorms until later in the day Saturday. Many communities have received well over 1 inch of rain already this morning. It is possible that this part of Alabama, including the Birmingham area, could get between 2 and 4 inches of rain before the event comes to an end.
We may see a changeover to snow showers at some point Saturday night and Sunday morning. We have mentioned a light accumulation possible in our current 33/40 forecast. We will be able to define that better tonight and tomorrow.
A FEW REPORTS
* 1.03 inches of rain since midnight in West Trussville
* 0.98 so far in SE Trussville
* Pea-size hail at 10:05 a.m. in Mountain Brook
* Marble-size hail early this morning in downtown Birmingham
The Severe Thunderstorm Watch continues until 3:00 this afternoon. A Flash Flood Watch is also in effect.
Stay tuned for frequent updates. Again, we apologize for the outage.
