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Event Summary for Central Alabama
Two rounds of severe thunderstorms were observed on April 5th. The first round occurred during the early morning hours as a warm front quickly lifted northward from the Gulf Coast in response to a rapidly developing storm system over the Plains. Elevated supercell thunderstorms with damaging straight-line winds and large hail occurred between 5am and 10am. Localized flooding also occurred due to training of storms along the warm front, which was set up along the I-20 corridor.
As the warm front continued to lift northward, a lull in the shower and thunderstorm activity occurred during the mid-morning and early afternoon hours. A 40 knot southwesterly low-level jet became established during the afternoon ahead of a cold front/dry line moving eastward from Mississippi. Very unstable air advected northward into Central Alabama, with increased instability due to daytime heating with clouds decreasing in coverage. Low-level directional shear also decreased during the afternoon, which limited the tornado potential. Temperatures aloft were also quite cold, between -13°C and -15°C at 500mb. Supercell thunderstorms developed along and east of the I-65 corridor ahead of the cold front/dry line, which acted as the primary lifting mechanism. Very large hail up to the size of baseballs was reported across east Alabama in the Munford and Oxford Communities, along with numerous other hail reports across east Alabama. Three tornadoes occurred along with straight-line wind damage in Tallapoosa County. The supercell storms moved east into Georgia by the early evening hours on April 5th.
The information contained below is from 3 individual tornado tracks and 1 straight line wind damage event that occurred. The data is PRELIMINARY and may be subject to change.
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