This is a collection of foul weather occurrences across Alabama today plus some other notes.
* There have been 18 Tornado Warnings since midnight from NWS in Mobile, Tallahassee and Birmingham.
* This afternoon, the EMA in Marion County reported a possible brief tornado touchdown near Gu-win at 3:22 p.m. National Guard personnel reported a funnel cloud possibly on the ground, but it became rain-wrapped. Several other reports were received from the same area of a funnel cloud possibly reaching the ground, but no damage was reported. NWS/Birmingham posted a Tornado Warning for the area.
* Around 6:00 this morning, there was thunderstorm wind damage just SE of Huntsville. High winds blew down a large tree onto Governor’s Drive at the intersection of California Street. The large tree knocked down power lines which shorted out a transformer sparking a fire. As a result, power was out in portions of the medical district and several traffic signals in the area.
* By 8:00 a.m., a co-op observer had measured 4.11 inches of rain 4 miles SSW of Harvest in Madison County. That set off flash flooding along nearby Knox Creek. High water flooded garages of up to 5 homes on Tobacco Road and Blueberry Drive. 2 to 4 inches of rain fell within the Mill Creek Basin in the town of Madison and Mill Road was closed for a time.
* At 10:15 a.m., 4.93 inches of rain had been measured in West Huntsville. The rain guage was located along Pin Hook Creek at Clinton Avenue in Huntsville. All of this rain fell in less than 12 hours.
* In SE Alabama, a tornado touched down in Enterprise (Coffee County). There was significant damage to the Enterprise Civic Center. The roof was peeled off of the Civic Center and windows blown out. Automobile windows were also blown out. Several trees were down and there was a lot of debris.
* At 9:25 a.m., a tornado at Panama City in NW Florida in the Bay Point subdivision near St. Andrews State Park. Windows were blown out at one or more homes. There was roof damage to a business building.
* At 10:25 a.m., the Weather Service in Mobile reported a tornado one mile north of Red Oak in Covington County. That is in extreme South Alabama. EMA personnel were on the site and they reported debris twisted around power poles. Numerous trees were down in a path and debris was blocking the highway just north of Red Oak.
* While we are at it, here is an update on the thunderstorm situation as of 4:20 p.m.: most of the stronger thunderstorms have moved over into Georgia, but there were some over the SE corner of Alabama. Due to cold air aloft, there was some redevelopment in NW Alabama. The strongest storms up that way were over Marion County and extending into NE Mississippi. Some smaller isolated ones were over the NW corner of Tuscaloosa County and a single small one in Bibb County. Those were moving toward the SE.
