WSFA covering night’s first tornado warnings

Remaining warm through New Year’s Eve, with colder air moving back into Alabama by January.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – A powerful storm system will move across the Deep South this weekend, bringing with it strong to severe storms. Alabama is dealing with some minor activity on radar right now, but more is expected late Saturday evening into the overnight hours in western portions of the state and will linger in our eastern counties through early Sunday morning; damaging wind gusts, heavy rain, lightning and hail are the primary impacts, with the tornado threat being low but not zero.

Saturday has been a day that we have spent watching what is happening out towards our west, and dozens of warnings have been issued for places like Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. We are watching our atmosphere closely… as this disturbance pushes across the region we will likely have a lot of ingredients needed to support severe storms.

Temperatures quickly surged into the upper 60s and low 70s thanks to a lifting warm front, helping to later fuel activity locally.

A FIRST ALERT as heavy rain, gusty wind and the potential for several stronger storms will be possible during now through sunrise on Sunday, with the primary threats being damaging wind that could cause damage and large hail… the tornado chance is low but not zero, but most likely over western Alabama.

A line of heavy rain and storm activity will continue to push through the state Saturday night and through Sunday morning, quickly exiting after sunrise. Sunday morning we will see temperatures in the 60s with afternoon highs climbing back near 70.

We dry out briefly Sunday afternoon and through the day Monday ahead of our next system that arrives by New Year’s Eve… that system will bring more scattered rain before 2024 is said and done with!

The big story to welcome in January will be the drop in temperatures: afternoon highs will fall back into the 40s and 50s while overnight lows are projected to be in the 20s and 30s.

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