Almost all the biggies have faded away for the night.

However, one cluster with locally heavy rain and lightning was located at 9 pm over SE Marengo County and parts of Dallas and Wilcox County.

Moving south slowly and diminishing in strength.

This should be our last update.

Bill Murray will be along soon with his Sunday Morning forecast on the 7-day discussion and his WeatherTalk here on the blog.

Strongest storms now way down south in two places:

1. Over South Chilton and Autauga County headed southward. Lots of heavy rain and much lightning.

2. Big one riding along on U. S 43 in South Greene County (West Alabama) headed south toward Demopolis.

No formal warnings now in effect. The Flash Flood Warning for Tuscaloosa County expired at 7:15.

(Scan down to earlier posts to see wqhat has happened this afternoon)

(Scan down to some updated information in the Tuscaloosa County paragraph)

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
It is for Fayette County in West Alabama until 7 pm. Includes the city of Fayette. The storm was over NW Fayette County moving southward.

TUSCALOOSA COUNTY
Flash Flood Warning continues until 7:15 pm. However, the strongest storms have weakened over North Hale County and SW Bibb County. Public reports up to 2 feet of water in front of the old Central High School on 15th Street. LATE REPORT: NWS reports numerous trees and power lines down in and around the City of Tuscaloosa at 5:29 pm. Several vehicles submerged by high water. No known injuries.

SHELBY COUNTY
Strong storm over south part of the county moving south.

REPORT FROM THE PUBLIC--SHELBY COUNTY
At Heardmont Park on Highway 119 between U.S. 280 and U.S. 31, it started hailing at the annual Oak Mountain Fish Fry with "bad" winds knocking over a baseball fence and all the booths that were set up.

NORTH SHELBY COUNTY
0.71 rainfall in only 30 minutes at Greystone Cove (report from James Spann)
UPDATE ON THAT: Now 0.85 of an inch as of 6:23 pm.

JEFFERSON COUNTY
Thunderstorm now forming over Trussvill area...rain just beginning.

SUMTER COUNTY
Severe Thunderstorm Warning till 7 pm for East Central Sumter including city of Livingston

It continues for Tuscaloosa County until 7:15 pm

Thanks to Isaac Williams who has private weather instruments at Taylorville, south of Tuscaloosa for this update.

As of 5:48 pm, rainfall 0.28 of an inch. No strong winds so far. He adds, "Much, much lightning--LOTS of lightning>"

Radar indicates that the cluster of thunderstorms has broken up somewhat and storms are also moving into NW Bibb County and NE Hale County.

For a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Central Tuscaloosa County until 5:30. Some of the communities affected (among others)

Tuscaloosa
Northport
Kellerman
Holt
Brookwood

The thunderstorms were rolling through the Northport-Tuscaloosa area at 5 pm with almost continuous lightning and very heavy rain.

Hail and damaging winds also possible.

SPECIAL UPDATE
At 5:14 pm, the NWS also added a Flash Flood Warning for Tuscaloosa County until 7:15 pm. Flash flooding has been reported by law enforcement officials and some areas have received 2 inches of rain and an additional 1 to 2 inches possible.

These storms rolling south at 25-30 mph...could affect Moundville and North Hale County later.

UPDATE:
At about 5:12 pm, we received a report from Taylorville, south of Tuscaloosa advising of winds gusting to 20 and "nothing real bad, yet."

It is beginning to look that way.

At 4 o'clock, big thunderstorms with heavy rain and lots of lightning strung out across West and South Walker County.

Moving into NE Tuscaloosa County and west edge of Jefferson County.

In West Jefferson, Birmingport, Oak Grove should get it. In South Walker, much rain and lightning for Oakman, Goodsprings and Gorgas. If you are getting adverse weather, we welcome a note from you by clicking on "Comment" below.

Looks like these big storms will pass just west of Birmingham proper.

We sure hope so to avoid a bunch of power outages from lightning in a heavily populated area.

More strong thunderstorms over NW Alabama across Franklin, Lawrence and Morgan County. Moving SE. Flash Flood Warning for East Morgan County until 7:15. That's in Extreme North Alabama. As much as 2 to 3 inches of rain has fallen over the east part of the county since 3:30. S Severe Thunderstorm Warning also for the SE part of the county until 4:45 affecting mainly the Morgan City area.

68 DEGREES ATOP MT CHEAHA!!
Lots of rain and storms over East Alabama today. In the rain-cooled air, the temperature was a cool 68 atop Mt. Cheaha, Alabama's highest point, at 4 pm. Elevation 2407 feet

DID BIRMINGHAM REACH 90?
Good chance that it did. If so, it will be only the second day out of the last 15 that we have seen the old 90-degree mark.

They are still out there roaming around and some of them are close to being severe. In fact, Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were in effect for a time for Eastern Winston, SE Clay and NE Tallapoosa County.

At 3 o'clock the thunderstorm that prompted the Winston County warning was over NE Walker County, NE of the Jasper area. It was moving generally SE and could move into NW Jefferson County later.

In East Alabama, the most numerous and stronger thunderstorms were over:

Tallapoosa County
Chambers County
Lee County

Lots of rain and lightning with those.

All of these big guys moving south and SE.

Those thunderstorms continue over East Alabama this afternoon.

At 2 o'clock, the storms extended from Cleburne County southward across Clay and Tallapoosa County.

It was pouring over the south part of Clay County especially from Ashland southward toward Mellow Valley. Radar indicates over two inches in that area this afternoon.

Meanwhile, over NW Alabama, a strong thunderstorm was over East Winston County...crossing U.S. 278 east of Double Springs.

Other scattered storms were entering NW Alabama.

Everything moving toward the SE

A cluster of strong thunderstorms has been working its way southward all morning from Northeast Alabama.

Shortly after noon, the main thunderstorms extended from North and NE St. Clair County, near Ashville, NE across the Attalla-Rainbow City-Gadsden area of Etowah County into North and Wesr Cherokee County.

The whole family of storms moving toward the south and SE.

Locally heavy rain and considerable lightning with these storms as they move toward North and West Calhoun County and the rest of Cherokee County.

Another group of showers/storms was ovee East Central Alabama, mainly South Cleburne, Randolph, Chambers and NE Tallapoosa County. The heaviest rain was over Chambers County.

Not much else going on around Alabama early this Saturday afternoon...

The Saturday map discussion video is on the server at:

http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/video.hrb

A weak disturbance in the upper air flow that was located just northwest of Mobile yesterday evening will be moving across the state today. As a result, showers should be fairly numerous, but not everyone will get wet. Lightning remains a big threat from these storms, so please take them seriously and don't stay outside during one of these storms.

I thought it was interesting to show the US satellite view to show how small Irene actually is. Looking at an image of Irene by itself without a landmark to reference makes it difficult to get the proper perspective. By the US IR image really shows how compact Irene is. And the track of Irene is expected to keep it just a threat to shipping and not to any land areas.

The train of disturbances is once again evident coming off the African continent. There are two disturbances out there, one on the continent about to emerge into the Atlantic, and a second one located about 1000 miles east of the Windward Islands that is showing potential for the development of a tropical depression. And remember that late August, September, and early October is the peak of the hurricane season.

With a continuation of showers and clouds and little change to the weather pattern affecting Alabama I do not see any serious heat in the near future - just a continuation of the broken record forecast so typical of summertime.

Off to the RESPECT Rally at Fair Park later this morning. Hope each of you has a great weekend. Be sure to catch the beauty the sky has to offer us each day.

-Brian-