North Alabama prepares for potential weekend storms
Multiple rounds of severe storms — including the potential for tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail — could sweep through the Tennessee Valley on Friday night into Saturday, forecasters warn.
The National Weather Service is asking residents to prepare but not panic. Preparing means having batteries for their weather radios, having fully charged cellphones, having a safe place to shelter and having multiple ways to get weather alerts during storm hours.
“The main crux will be on Friday night,” said Andrew Pritchett, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Huntsville. “On Friday night, we have a strong area of low pressure that is going to eject basically from the southern plains into the Ohio Valley. It’s sort of a conditional threat Friday night. We will have a lot of the ingredients for severe weather. We don’t know if they will be able to develop in our area moving out of Mississippi.”
The main window for severe weather is going to be during the day Saturday. That’s when the Tennessee Valley could see multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms with the potential for tornadoes, flash flooding, damaging winds and large hail, Pritchett said.
The first storms will arrive in the morning with waves lasting through the evening hours Saturday, he said.
“So, Saturday is definitely a day when people really need to be paying attention to the weather,” he said. “Make sure they have multiple ways to get warnings. Make sure you know where your safe place is and where to go if a warning is issued for their area.”
He said the weather service doesn’t want people to panic.
“Severe weather can be very traumatizing for folks who have lived in this area for a long time,” Pritchett said. “We just want people to be prepared. Have those multiple ways to get warnings, know what you will do and just pay attention to the weather; be close to your shelter on Saturday in case a warning is issued.”
He said make sure you have flashlights in your shelter area, medicine and a first-aid kit.
“Make sure you know where your weather radio is and have wireless emergency alerts activated on your phone and go to trusted media sources,” he said.
