As we are approaching the 5:00 am hours on this election day in Central Alabama, the severe weather threat really has seemed to have calmed down. The dynamic support has now moved far enough to the north and way from the area that it has affected the strength of the line of storms. With that being said, there is an area of broad rotation approaching Alabaster that is being watched by NWS Birmingham.
Surface-based instability is really being squeezed back down to the southern half of the state and the higher helicity is being forced off to the northeast and out of the state. While it still remains possible for a storm to go severe with isolated damaging wind gusts or with a brief spin-up tornado, the likelihood of that happening is very small now and will continue to decrease as we get later in the morning.
It won’t be too much longer before NWS Birmingham cancels the Tornado Watch for the remaining counties in Central Alabama due to the fact that the line will be moving out of those counties. As I am typing this, Blount, Jefferson, and Tuscaloosa counties have been removed from the watch.
Dewpoints are really dropping fast behind the line of storms as we are seeing those values dipping down into the mid-50s to the lower 60s, especially north of the I-59 corridor. Just over 1 hour ago, Tuscaloosa had a dewpoint reading right at 70 degrees. The current dewpoint reading has dropped down to 59 degrees.
The Storm Prediction Center still has the extreme southern and southeastern parts of Central Alabama in a Marginal Risk for severe storms through the morning hours today as the line continues to sag southward with the cold front. The main threat will be from isolated damaging wind gusts. The tornado threat is not at zero, but it will be very, very low throughout the morning.
Only a few reports of trees being knocked down during this event in North and Central Alabama, along with a small number of power outages. Unfortunately, there was one person killed up in Christiana, Tennessee, as a home collapsed during a possible tornado.
As far as polling sites in North and Central Alabama, all will be open and ready to go at 7:00 AM, even those in schools that have been delayed in starting today. You can find the list of delays on the ABC 33/40 Closings page.
