Not as many tornado warnings in effect at this hour as there were late this afternoon and early tonight. There are no warnings in Alabama at this hour.
However, a Tornado Watch continues for North and West/Central Alabama until 5:00 a.m. That Tornado Watch also extends way down into Mississippi. This includes all of the Birmingham metro area.
We are closely watching a line of very intense thunderstorms from the north edge of Mississippi south westward into NE and Central Louisiana. We are also watching some showers developing ahead of the line in NW Alabama in places like Marion and Franklin Counties. The atmosphere has become more friendly to potential severe thunderstorm development in that area and we will watch that closely as well as the lines of storms. The thunderstorms in the main line are overloaded with lightning.
There is some confusion over the number of injuries in tornadoes earlier tonight and late this afternoon. 30 students were hospitalized in Jackson, Tennessee from Union University. Two women’s dorms were affected and one of those collapsed. There are other reports that 150 to 200 people may be injured overall in the Jackson area.
Earlier (late afternoon) 3 persons were killed at Atkins, Arkansas in Polk County. Numerous trees and power lines came down in Little Rock as the wind gusted to about 73 mph. The Fire Department was destroyed at Highland, Arkansas. A tornado touched down SW of Abbeville, Mississippi with 1 person injured and 2 industries destroyed.
There was a lot of damage in the Memphis area. Scroll down to see the earlier posts by Bill for more details on that.
TIME LINE FOR THE STORMS IN ALABAMA
NWS/Huntsville says the line of thunderstorms will reach the NW tip of Alabama around midnight, then to I-65 across the Tennessee Valley around 2:00 a.m. and across the rest of the Tennessee Valley area into NE Alabama by 4:00 a.m.
In the greater Birmingham area, it will take longer for the storms to arrive and clear the area. It could be close to 6:00 a.m. before the main line of storms gets east of Birmingham.
We will be here all night watching and waiting.
