Tornado Day In Alabama
You know how some places have a snow day where schools and businesses are closed due to the snowy weather? Well, here in Alabama we have similar closings due to severe weather threats including tornados and strong storms. We have a very famous weather man named James Spann on ABC 33/40. He is predicting some rough weather for tomorow and I thought I would post what he wrote.
Im not kidding when I say we will be wearing our motorcycle helmets and heavy clothing if the sirens begin to sound.
ACTIVE SPRING WEATHER: First off, severe weather threats like this are VERY common in Alabama in March, April, and May. There is absolutely no need to be fearful, just be prepared. Knowledge is powerful and this post will tell you what you need to know.
The primary severe weather concern will be tomorrow afternoon and evening, but we will deal with periods of rain, and possibly a few thunderstorms tonight as a warm front begins to lift northward through Central Alabama. SPC continues to mention a threat of severe storms for the southern half of Alabama tonight... the main threat will come from strong gusty winds and small hail. The tornado threat for South Alabama tonight is very low.
TOMORROW AFTERNOON/EVENING: SPC continues an "enhanced risk" of severe storms for much of North Alabama... the standard "slight risk" extends as far south as Linden, Camden, and Andalusia. A "marginal risk" covers the rest of Southwest Alabama...
New model guidance this afternoon (the 18Z run of the 3km NAM) continues to show a volatile setup tomorrow afternoon; the combination of instability, shear, and strong wind fields are pushing the STP (Significant Tornado Parameter) up to a max of 6.8 over North Alabama tomorrow evening.
TIMING: The core risk of severe storms will come from roughly 3:00 until 10:00 p.m. A few storms over far East Alabama could linger through midnight.
THREATS: Storms tomorrow afternoon and evening could produce very large hail (2" in diameter in some cases), damaging straight line winds, and a few tornadoes. One or two strong tornadoes are possible, mainly in the enhanced risk area over North Alabama.
RAIN: Storms will be fairly scattered in nature, and rain amounts where storms pass through should be around 1/2". Some places will see lighter amounts. There is no significant risk of flash flooding.
CONFIDENCE: There is still a bit of uncertainty in that we will have rain at times tonight that might impact the atmospheric conditions tomorrow, but overall confidence in severe thunderstorm development is high. We will be looking for small scale boundaries that result in backed, southeast surface winds bringing a localized higher tornado threat tomorrow. We really won't know about those until mid-morning tomorrow.
SCHOOLS: Some school systems are closing early tomorrow... see a list here: http://abc3340.com/weather/closings
CALL TO ACTION: Tonight is a good time to review your tornado plan.
*Be sure you can hear warnings if needed. NEVER rely on an outdoor warning siren; if that is your main way of hearing warnings, you have little hope of hearing them indoors. Have a NOAA Weather Radio in your home or business, and a good app designed for warnings on your smart phone like WeatherRadio by WDT.
*Know the safe place in your home. Small room, lowest floor, away from windows, and near the center of the house. If you live in a mobile home, you have to leave and go to a shelter or site built structure.
*In your safe place, be sure you have a helmet for everyone to wear (not just children)… it is also good for everyone to have a portable air horn (to get the attention of first responders if you need help), and be sure and wear hard sole shoes (you don't want to walk over a tornado debris field with tennis shoes, or bare feet).
Stay tuned to the blog for updates... http://www.alabamawx.com
When it's snowing, agood time to do sky.
Posting this reveals how good your heart is... We all learn from this, with this, the world we live in might be a place to be.... Keep it up sir, you are just a Gem to the WORLD.
It's funny how you get familiar and even comfortable with certain weather phenomena because they happen so often. I've talked to people from the west coast who think earthquakes are no big deal. Because I've never experienced an earthquake, I feel like they are a very big deal and tornadoes are much less of a big deal if you pay attention and take the necessary precautions.
When it snowed here in Jersey...public schools closed like the day before...well some of them
Always good to warn people just in case. I'm definitely going to be glued to my phone/tv all day tomorrow keeping up with the models as they come in.
A lot of people get upset when they predict this kind of weather and it's not as bad, but they don't know how incredibly small the margins are in severe weather. Spann and our local meteorologist always do a great job with severe weather.
This may be my topic for tomorrow!
Do you have a game plan if the cone of uncertainty is targeting you as a bullseye?
My particular apartment building's bottom floor is partially underground, and there is a public laundry room that's open to everyone in the building that's essentially entirely underground. I imagine we'd go there if we needed to.
Thats awesome! We have a second floor apartment with a wing shaped roof. We just put on our helmets on and pray. If we see an f5 coming from Tuscaloosa we will hop in the car and go to the WMU. They have a huge basement.