The Storm Prediction Center has issued a tornado watch for southern Louisiana. A warm front is surging on shore in Louisiana in advance of a northward moving low pressure system that is just off the SW Louisiana coast.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms have overspread much of Louisiana, extending into Arkansas and entering southern Mississippi. Natchez was reporting a thunderstorm this hour. Heavy storms were approaching the River north of Vickburg.
This activity will continue spreading northeastward today and tonight as the low tracks up the Mississippi River to near Memphis by morning. As it does, it will push a cold front our way. A line of pre-frontal thunderstorms will approach West Alabama tonight. South of Tuscaloosa, instabilities will be high enough for damaging winds and tornadoes to develop.
Further north, isolated wind damage reports will occur, and we can’t rule out an isolated tornado because of high wind shear values, despite the low instability values.
While we don’t expect widespread severe weather, we want all our friends to monitor the weather conditions, especially tonight before retiring to bed. Overnight severe weather is our worst nightmare and we don’t want anyone to be caught off guard.
We still are hoping for one to two inches of rainfall across the area overnight tonight and into Monday. This would be very beneficial. No major changes to the forecast for the afternoon package.
at 10:45 a.m., thick clouds covered the area. An area of heavy showers was over Northwest Alabama, covering parts of Marion, Franklin, Colbert and Lauderdale Counties. I would not be surprised to see these cells become elevated storms as they continue moving northeast.
Temperatures across Central Alabama ranged from 45F at Gadsden to 50F at Birmingham to 54F at Tuscaloosa at 10 a.m. Readings will rise into the 50s today, and edge upward a bit more overnight into the lower 60s as warm, moist air flows up and over the cooler air at the surface and works its way down.
