All right, starting this post just after 9 PM when the Tornado Watch was allowed to expire for Tennessee counties.
All right, the only counties that I really cover on this blog that are still under the Tornado Watch are Cullman, Marshall, Dekalb, Jackson, Walker, and Blount. Those other counties farther into Eastern Tennessee or into Central Alabama, I rarely include here. There are too many other sources that cover them, and it's simpler to basically keep my eyes on North Alabama and the bordering counties of Southern Middle Tennessee. Only occasionally will I go as far East as Marion, TN, maybe if they have a Tornado Warning. But they are still under the watch too. As as places farther to the South like Gadsden and Birmingham.
9:10 PM - The NWS Huntsville is cautioning people that while the risk is very low, an isolated strong storm could still become severe tonight before the cold front passes through. And to go to bed with a weather radio on alert or some other source that will wake you up if you need to wake up to take cover.
9:12 - I understand the play-it-safe approach, especially on a day that threw as many curves as today did. But I doubt we'll see anything else severe unless it is in far Northeast Alabama. Still is a good idea to have a way of waking up for an alert just in case. And that office in Huntsville does have some of the best weather technology in the world. They are located in a NASA building and can collaborate with employees from there and with students at UAH. They really know their stuff.
I'm going to go ahead and run through the basics of the forecast in this post instead of posting it separately. Should be calling it a night pretty soon.
Tomorrow will be mostly sunny and breezy, much cooler, starting the day around 45 degrees and warming to about 60 in the afternoon.
Basically the same for Thursday except a High more like 58-59 and Low of about 38-39.
The winds should calm down on Friday with clear, sunny skies and a High near 60, but a cold morning, down to almost freezing, about 33-34. Some frost is possible that morning.
Saturday also looks sunny, High in lower 60's, the Low in the lower 30's but not quite to freezing for most of us, at least on the Alabama side.
Mostly sunny on Sunday with the High rebounding to about 70, the Low near 40 but probably more like upper 30's.
Monday skies will be partly cloudy with isolated showers possible, High in the lower 70's, the Low near 50.
And then Tuesday we'll see a High in lower 70's again, Low in lower 50's, may see some rain or even a few thunderstorms, but it looks like it will be widely scattered.
All right. So you've got a forecast to go on. Might be a need to post other stuff tonight, but I'm thinking probably not.
9:24 PM - All right, we do have something here in Northeast Alabama. Below severe limits, but a strong thunderstorm worthy of a special weather statement.
9:25 - And that part of the line of storms does look kind of nasty. Lots of lightning.
The statement mentions the lightning and wind gusts up to 40 mph.
That is below severe limits, and if this storm intensifies, it will surprise me. But I guess it's good to let people know what's going on until the rest of this moves out of the area.
I don't think we will be seeing any severe activity behind this line in Northeast Alabama at all.
9:28 - Walker County has been formally cleared from the Tornado Watch now - good call.
9:56 - Cullman County has been cleared from the watch. Blount, Marshall, Jackson, and Dekalb Counties remain under it for now.
10:03 PM - Refreshing for Davis Nolan, of all people, to say what he did above. He has such a long tenure in Middle Tennessee.
When I saw that sounding earlier today, I really thought at least Northern Tennessee was going to explode with severe weather, and had a lot of concern for Middle and Southern Tennessee, and even thought maybe things were trending worse for Alabama. And somehow or the other, things just didn't blow up down here.
There were some chasers disappointed in things in the Ohio Valley, but I agree with Ryan Hall that this was anything but a bust for them. I'm glad it wasn't any worse than it was.
And I'm glad we got almost no severe weather down this way. But I am not going to pretend that I understand why. I truly don't know.
And at one point, I was flipping different news sites, and heard Jason Simpson saying something to the effect that you'd think things would be exploding here by now, but they aren't. And I think he also mentioned the rain-cooled air. So it wasn't just me. This was one weird weather day. One of these researchers should study it. And since it produced a lot of damage in the Ohio Valley, a lot of it from tornadoes, maybe they will. It really might help us in the future, understanding why some severe weather forecasts verify and some more or less "bust". It was not a total bust in North Alabama and Tennessee. We did have that one tornado-warned storm that did a lot of tree and power line damage from Athens all the way up somewhere close to Winchester, TN. And somewhere in Northeast Tennessee, I forget the name of the town, but it looks like a significant tornado did hit there during the peak heating hours. But still . . . that kind of a setup suggested a lot more bad weather than we got.
10:15 PM - And I really don't think these last storms in Dekalb County are going to do anything as far as severe weather.
Good night.
10:46 - Okay so I stayed up a little longer. And now Dekalb County has been cleared from the Tornado Watch.
Blount County is still technically under it, but that's sort of more in Central Alabama. I'm calling it a night. Birmingham bloggers look out for Blount County anyway. And I doubt it does anything there either.
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