"Octobomb" Low. Severe Weather Occurred From Minnesota to Alabama, 3:32 p.m. CT 10/26/10

It has been a wild weather week in Alabama. After several weeks without rain, several inches fell across the state this week. In addition, tornadoes and severe weather hit the state. The NWS has confirmed at least five tornadoes. Three tornadoes were confirmed on October 25/26 by the NWS Huntsville and two were confirmed by the NWS Birmingham. Three other tornadoes were confirmed for the early morning hours of 10/25 by the NWS Huntsville. Counties affected by tornadoes were Winston (EF1), Jefferson (EF1), Dekalb (EF1, EF0, EF2), Jackson (EF1 and EF2), Marshall (EF0).

Here are a few articles...

WAFF 48 Huntsville

Montgomery Advertiser

Sand Mountain Reporter

Times-Journal

Gadsden Times

Huntsville Times



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Radar estimates that some portions of Franklin County received over 3" of rain. Several other spots received well over one inch. Just about everyone received significant rain.

Numerous CoCoRaHS reporters received over one inch so far.

There were numerous reports of hail across the state, some as large as baseballs near Dora in Walker County and also in Linden in Marengo County. An unconfirmed tornado was reported in Baldwin County last night.

As I write this, the NWS Mobile just indicated a report of a tornado in the city of Mobile this morning.

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Radar estimates show rainfall amounts varied from 1" in isolated portions of West and Central Alabama to nothing in portions of Northeast Alabama.

As expected, most of Alabama saw at least a little rain yesterday. There were a few areas which received no rainfall and a few which received isolated heavier amounts. There were also a few reports of small hail in Central Alabama and a few reports of winds in the 50-60 mph range that blew down trees in a few isolated areas. There was also a report of lightning injuring children. A few official rainfall totals from the National Weather Service include:

Huntsville .18"
Muscle Shoals .02"
Anniston .01"
Birmingham .05"
Montgomery .50"
Tuscaloosa .12"
Mobile .00"

CoCoRaHS reporters observed some of the isolated heavier amounts. Those include:

Helena 1.78"
Pelham 1.08"
Ozark 1.02"
Clanton .78"
Killen .78"
Capshaw .74"

Tim Coleman of UAH posted a cool radar loop on Alabamawx.com. This shows an outflow boundary feature.
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It has now been thirteen days since much of Alabama has seen rainfall. This was the third time this year that we had a stretch of 13 or 14 days without rain. That will change on Tuesday evening as an upper level low approaches the area. Unfortunately, the air is so dry here in Alabama that the system will not have much moisture with which to work. For that reason rainfall totals will probably be less than a half inch. Some areas may see little or no rain.




Tomorrow's Convective Outlook from the SPC

The SPC is suggesting there will be a slight risk of severe weather tomorrow in Mississippi. I took a look at the models and the parameters really do not look that impressive, but a few strong to severe storms are possible west of Alabama.

The temperature this afternoon is near 90 in many areas but after tomorrow's system rolls through, cooler air will settle in again. We have been on a temperature roller coaster the last few weeks. The dry air in place really facilitates wild swings in temperature. Tim Coleman of UAH has an interesting post on our wild temperature swings and how they compare historically in this post on Alabamawx.com.

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J.B. Elliott of Alabamawx.com is the best at compiling lists of extreme temperatures on unusually warm or cool days in Alabama. This morning Alabama experienced the coldest temperatures in many months. J.B.'s entite post (entertaining as always) is here.

Here are the coldest lows J.B. reported this morning:

32 SW Lamar County, west of Millport
33 Russellville Airport
34 Hamilton
36 Guin Skycam, Addison
37 Cottondale, Valley Head Water Board, Vigo
38 Concord, Fayette, Scottsboro Airport, Cullman Airport, Pinson, Russellville Skycam
39 Jasper, Dora, Centreville, Decatur, Huntsville, Ft. Payne Airport

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