Alabama’s forecast: Severe risk Thursday, Friday and Saturday

POWER OUTAGES | DAMAGES | ROAD CLOSURES | WILDFIRES | WVTM 13 LIVE DOPPLER RADAR | UPLOAD YOUR WEATHER PHOTOS | WAYS TO STAY SAFE | GET WEATHER NOTIFICATIONSWednesday’s weather will be quiet, warm and dry ahead of three rounds of severe storms later this week into the weekend. A significant severe weather outbreak is possible Saturday. Check the video forecast for the latest. WARM, DRY WEDNESDAYTuesday’s temperature swing was a big one.Birmingham went from 37 to 75 degrees.Tuscaloosa jumped from 36 to 77 degrees.Anniston climbed from 34 to 74 degrees.Wednesday will be the similar to that. While it will not be quite as cold at sunrise for the morning drive to work and school, we will still end up in the 40s.Some clouds on the western horizon Wednesday afternoon will give you the first visual clue of a quick change to some wetter weather coming for Thursday. Otherwise, the day looks beautiful, warm and dry with a gentle southwest breeze gusting over 20 miles per hour.IMPACT DAY: THURSDAYAn ‘Impact Day’ means that the weather will have a disruptive effect on your normal daily routine.Here’s the setup for Thursday:A pocket of very cold air about 15,000 feet above our heads will drift over Alabama on Thursday. Scattered storms develop to our west, shifting into Alabama through the day.TIMING: Scattered showers and thunderstorms develop on Thursday before sunrise through the early afternoon.IMPACTS: Locally heavy storms will produce heavy rain and frequent lightning. A few storms could briefly reach severe limits with damaging winds or large hail.IMPACT DAY: FRIDAYMost of Friday will be sunny, breezy and warm. Only a narrow window of Friday night gets that ‘Impact Day’ tag as storms from Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi move into Alabama.TIMING: A severe weather outbreak will be ongoing Friday afternoon and evening west of Alabama. Those storms will begin to move into the western counties of Alabama late Friday evening after 9 p.m. through about 6 a.m. Saturday.Since these storms will be in the area overnight, be sure you have a NOAA Weather Radio set, tuned and ready to receive a warning as well as the WVTM 13 app on your device to get the very latest alerts.IMPACTS: Storms in Alabama late Friday night through 6 a.m. Saturday could bring hail, strong wind gusts, and a tornado could develop from any of the more intense storms in this line.ALERT DAY: SEVERE WEATHER EXPECTED SATURDAYSaturday, March 15, will bring a significant risk of severe weather to the South including strong wind gusts over 60 miles per hour, large hail, and tornadoes.A powerful Spring storm system will be spinning just northwest of Alabama Friday night into Saturday morning, drawing up warm, humid air from the Gulf to fuel what we expect to be some very intense thunderstorms.TIMING: We will have one round of storms ongoing in the morning hours, and those could impact how storms behave later in the day.A rough estimate of a timeline would start our “main” event as early as 11 a.m. Saturday, and it could last through 1 a.m. Sunday.IMPACTS: A system like this has the potential to be a higher-end severe weather threat in Alabama and Mississippi. Both supercells (individual rotating severe storms) and a squall line are possible in this kind of environment. That means strong wind gusts, large hail, and a tornado threat will exist. Some flash flooding will also be possible. Be sure you are getting timely information on this weather setup. The Storm Prediction Center’s outlook says this:“…On Saturday, the upper cyclone over the Upper Midwest will lift northeast into Ontario, but a larger-scale upper trough will remain over the Plains. The Plains trough will intensify and spread east toward the MS/OH Valleys. This will maintain the eastward progression of a strongly forced line of convection from the Ohio Valley south/southwest into the Deep South/central Gulf coast vicinity through Saturday night. Portions of the Deep South into GA may see multiple rounds of severe convection with a mix of both supercell and QLCS storm modes potentially moving across the region, posing a concern for damaging tornadoes and swaths of severe winds.”Translated into normal language, that means we expect this storm system to be in balance with strong wind shear (muscle) and instability (fuel) to produce and maintain severe storms.AFTER THE STORMSThe weather behind Saturday’s storm system improves greatly by Sunday afternoon. We expect warm, relatively quiet weather for the first part of next week with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s.STAY WEATHER-AWAREFor the latest weather coverage for your area, click here. And stay updated with alerts in the WVTM 13 app. You can download it here.For the latest Birmingham weather information and Central Alabama’s certified most accurate forecast, watch WVTM 13 News.Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram.

POWER OUTAGES | DAMAGES | ROAD CLOSURES | WILDFIRES | WVTM 13 LIVE DOPPLER RADAR | UPLOAD YOUR WEATHER PHOTOS | WAYS TO STAY SAFE | GET WEATHER NOTIFICATIONS

Wednesday’s weather will be quiet, warm and dry ahead of three rounds of severe storms later this week into the weekend. A significant severe weather outbreak is possible Saturday. Check the video forecast for the latest.

WARM, DRY WEDNESDAY

Tuesday’s temperature swing was a big one.

  • Birmingham went from 37 to 75 degrees.
  • Tuscaloosa jumped from 36 to 77 degrees.
  • Anniston climbed from 34 to 74 degrees.

Wednesday will be the similar to that. While it will not be quite as cold at sunrise for the morning drive to work and school, we will still end up in the 40s.

Some clouds on the western horizon Wednesday afternoon will give you the first visual clue of a quick change to some wetter weather coming for Thursday. Otherwise, the day looks beautiful, warm and dry with a gentle southwest breeze gusting over 20 miles per hour.

IMPACT DAY: THURSDAY

An ‘Impact Day’ means that the weather will have a disruptive effect on your normal daily routine.

Here’s the setup for Thursday:

A pocket of very cold air about 15,000 feet above our heads will drift over Alabama on Thursday. Scattered storms develop to our west, shifting into Alabama through the day.

TIMING: Scattered showers and thunderstorms develop on Thursday before sunrise through the early afternoon.

IMPACTS: Locally heavy storms will produce heavy rain and frequent lightning. A few storms could briefly reach severe limits with damaging winds or large hail.

IMPACT DAY: FRIDAY

Most of Friday will be sunny, breezy and warm. Only a narrow window of Friday night gets that ‘Impact Day’ tag as storms from Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi move into Alabama.

TIMING: A severe weather outbreak will be ongoing Friday afternoon and evening west of Alabama. Those storms will begin to move into the western counties of Alabama late Friday evening after 9 p.m. through about 6 a.m. Saturday.

Since these storms will be in the area overnight, be sure you have a NOAA Weather Radio set, tuned and ready to receive a warning as well as the WVTM 13 app on your device to get the very latest alerts.

IMPACTS: Storms in Alabama late Friday night through 6 a.m. Saturday could bring hail, strong wind gusts, and a tornado could develop from any of the more intense storms in this line.

ALERT DAY: SEVERE WEATHER EXPECTED SATURDAY

Saturday, March 15, will bring a significant risk of severe weather to the South including strong wind gusts over 60 miles per hour, large hail, and tornadoes.

A powerful Spring storm system will be spinning just northwest of Alabama Friday night into Saturday morning, drawing up warm, humid air from the Gulf to fuel what we expect to be some very intense thunderstorms.

TIMING: We will have one round of storms ongoing in the morning hours, and those could impact how storms behave later in the day.

A rough estimate of a timeline would start our “main” event as early as 11 a.m. Saturday, and it could last through 1 a.m. Sunday.

IMPACTS: A system like this has the potential to be a higher-end severe weather threat in Alabama and Mississippi. Both supercells (individual rotating severe storms) and a squall line are possible in this kind of environment.

That means strong wind gusts, large hail, and a tornado threat will exist. Some flash flooding will also be possible. Be sure you are getting timely information on this weather setup.

The Storm Prediction Center’s outlook says this:

“…On Saturday, the upper cyclone over the Upper Midwest will lift northeast into Ontario, but a larger-scale upper trough will remain over the Plains. The Plains trough will intensify and spread east toward the MS/OH Valleys. This will maintain the eastward progression of a strongly forced line of convection from the Ohio Valley south/southwest into the Deep South/central Gulf coast vicinity through Saturday night. Portions of the Deep South into GA may see multiple rounds of severe convection with a mix of both supercell and QLCS storm modes potentially moving across the region, posing a concern for damaging tornadoes and swaths of severe winds.

Translated into normal language, that means we expect this storm system to be in balance with strong wind shear (muscle) and instability (fuel) to produce and maintain severe storms.

AFTER THE STORMS

The weather behind Saturday’s storm system improves greatly by Sunday afternoon.

We expect warm, relatively quiet weather for the first part of next week with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s.

STAY WEATHER-AWARE

For the latest weather coverage for your area, click here. And stay updated with alerts in the WVTM 13 app. You can download it here.

For the latest Birmingham weather information and Central Alabama’s certified most accurate forecast, watch WVTM 13 News.

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram.

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