Severe Weather Thursday Night – Tuesday Morning Update – 9:30 am

Good morning! Thursday night’s event is starting to look more like a severe weather setup across the deep south, with the threat of damaging winds, hail and tornadoes. Above is the day 3 convective outlook from the Storm Prediction Center. A slight risk covers all of central and west Alabama. The SPC doesn’t issue anything above a slight risk on the day 3 outlook, but their severe weather probabilities are concerning.

Above is the probability of severe weather for Thursday evening through Thursday night. This is an enhanced risk across all of central and West Alabama with the 30% right over us, plus, the SPC has marked our area under the hatched lines. This means there’s a risk of significant severe weather. While data is still a little iffy, models are coming into better agreement that we will have severe weather problems Thursday night. An upgrade to a moderate risk is possible.

Now is a good time to go over your severe weather plan incase a tornado warning is issued for your area. Find that spot in your home that is the safer place, which should be the lowest floor, in a small room away from windows. Also, you must get a programmable NOAA Weather Radio. You can find them at Walmart, Publix, Radio Shack and Walgreens. They cost 20 to 30 dollars, but it is worth it. If we have tornado warnings at night, you will need something to wake you up. I suggest getting a Midland NOAA Weather Radio. Here’s a link to all the SAME codes in Alabama. You can program the weather radio for a single county or multiple counties. Find the codes by searching this link: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/CntyCov/nwrAL.htm

We will continue to go through forecast data and fine tune the exact time and threat. This forecast has a potential to change a lot between now and Thursday, so make sure you stay severe weather alert. We’ll get you through this.

If we go under a tornado warning, we go live on WVUA-TV and on the radio: 100.1 The River and 102.9 Catfish Country.

Send us your weather pictures! Send them to weather@wvuatv.com. Also, look us up on facebook and twitter by searching weather@wvuatv.com or searching WVUA-TV Weather. We also have a new like page on facebook, called WVUA-TV Weather. Since we’re running out of room on the friend page, I recommend you like us on facebook. Great way to get weather updates! Plus, facebook is a great way to send us weather pictures. Simply tag us!

Also, join us live on WVUA-TV weekdays at 4, 5, 6 and 10 pm and weekends at 10pm for the very latest on your news, weather and sports.

WVUA Chief Meteorologist Richard Scott

rscott@wvuatv.com