Heavy rain and thunder/lightning continues across Washington and Clarke counties in west Alabama… We are noting a developing bowing segment of storms near Chatom that may produce 40-50mph wind gusts over the next few minutes. A Tornado Watch continues for pretty much all of our local area (except Covington and Okaloosa counties) until 7PM.
A Flash Flood Warning continues for much of Washington and southern Choctaw counties in west Alabama until 8:30PM. Millry, Chatom, Frankville, and Silas are included, along with a long stretch of Alabama Highway 17. Please do not drive over a water-covered roadway.
Just to review for those that may have missed the Facebook Live video about an hour ago… I expect the forward speed of this slow-moving complex of showers and storms to pick up over the next hour or so. Storms have been non-severe for much of the day (there was a severe thunderstorm warning earlier for Clarke/Washington counties earlier) and I wouldn’t be shocked to see a few tornado/severe thunderstorm warnings over the next few hours.
One thing that may be working in our favor to prevent storms from becoming severe is the large amount of high cloud cover across the region. We note surface temperatures have actually been decreasing slightly over the last few hours because of this. This could be helping to tamper the severe weather risk ever so slightly. Again, the risk is nowhere close to being over, however.
Please have a way to receive urgent weather warnings over the next few hours!