Overview
Tuesday, November 29, 2022, got off to a cold start across Central Alabama as the area observed morning low temperatures in the 30s and 40s. Some locations even dropped to freezing near daybreak. However, the atmosphere was able to allow for a quick warm-up that day as an area of low pressure advanced northeast through the Mississippi River Valley. This allowed for southeasterly to southerly low-level winds to transport warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico northward through the Lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys. The combination of southerly flow and some sunshine allowed for temperatures to rise well into the 70s by the afternoon hours. As a result, showers and thunderstorms began to develop in the region.
The first round of these were elevated in nature as a warm front at 850 mb moved into the area. However, as surface dewpoints continued to increase into the 60s during the late afternoon, instability became more surface-based. Additional thunderstorms continued to develop across portions of Louisiana and Mississippi during this time. Given an abundance of wind shear in the atmosphere that afternoon, many thunderstorms became supercells. These strong to severe thunderstorms eventually made their way into Central Alabama Tuesday evening carrying a threat of damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes.
Thunderstorm activity also led to heavy rainfall into the morning hours of Wednesday, November 30, 2022. This caused flash flooding in the Birmingham area. Locations along and north of Interstate 20 received 2 to 5 inches of rainfall, some locally higher. Overall, many communities were impacted as these strong to severe thunderstorms moved along and ahead of an advancing cold front. In total, 10 tornadoes were documented in Central Alabama, along with numerous wind damage and hail reports. Unfortunately, one EF-2 tornado claimed the lives of two Central Alabama residents and resulted in 2 injuries in Montgomery County.