Showers and thunderstorms diminished greatly late tonight.

At 10:35 pm, the heaviest rain in Central Alabama was over North Bibb and SW Shelby County.

Several moderate showers over Lamar County in West Alabama.

In NE Alabama, rain intensity has greatly diminished.

Scroll down for earlier posts listing some rainfall amounts.

This may be our last update this evening, unless something strong redevelopes.

Very heavy rain was falling tonight on Central Alabama from Bibb County eastward into Shelby County. At 9:15 some of the heavest was from near West Blocton to Alabaster.

Stephanie Honeycutt, 3340 Skywatcher in Alabaster reports 1.11 inches. In the Alabaster/Maylene area, David Black reports 1/2 inch of rain in 1/2 hour.

0.62 has fallen at Riverchase at 33/40.

Some very heavy rain has occurred in NE Alabama tonight also. The heaviest at 9:15 was from near Anniston, NE to to Jacksonville-Centre areas and then into NW Georgia. Over an inch of rain has surely fallen in many of those areas.

The main part of a line of thunderstorms at 7:20 pm extended from north of Rome, Ga., SW to near Centre, in NE Ala., and through West Calhoun County near Ohatchee, through East St. Clair County to the NE corner of Shelby County.

Strongest part of the line was in Cherokee and West Calhoun County.

The part of the line SW of Birmingham has broken up and not as strong. However, there were a few strong storms:

* Near Vance in East Tuscaloosa County
* Near Moundville and Havana in North Hale County

Rainfall amounts available now:

0.55 at Birmingham Airport
2.21 in Downtown Birmingham at the 3340 Skycam
0.13 at Tuscaloosa Airport
0.01 at Gadsden Airport
0.42 at Crumly Chapel
Trace in Inverness

That long line of thunderstorms (not a solid line) extended at 6 pm from North Greene County in West Alabama, NE to near Birmingham, across St. Clair County to near Gadsden and into North Cherokee County in NE Alabama.

Overall, not as strong as earlier but some places still getting heavy rain.

Some of the stronger storms at 6 pm:

* Along I-20 east of Birmingham between Leeds and Cook Springs
* Just North of Northport in Tuscaloosa County
* North edge of Greene County in West Alabama
* North of Gadsden

Rain in downtown Birmingham has greatly diminished. The total downtown at the 3340 Skycam location atop the Daniel Building was 2.21 inches. Some early rainfall amounts:

2.21 inches in Downtown Birmingham
0.09 in Downtown Tuscaloosa
0.01 at Gadsden
0.00 at Riverchase, Inverness and NE TRussville

As of 5:28 pm, the total at the ABC 33/40 Skycam site atop the Daniel Building was:

2.18 inches.

Most of that has fallen in the last hour

A line of thunderstorms hanging very close to Interstate 59 extended late this afternoon along the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham-Gadsden-Fort Payne line.

Slow moving

One of the heaviest was over downtown Birmingham

Check this:

As of 5:15 pm, rainfall at the Skycam site atop the daniel Building was 1.86 inches and still pouring.

Not a drop is Trussville yet.

UPDATE FOR RAINFALL:
As of 4:45 pm, rainfall at the Skycam site in downtown Birmingham (atop the Daniel Building) has reached 0.73 of an inch with heavy rain still in the area.

Several strong thunderstorms were in progress late this afternoon across North Alabama. They were widely scattered from the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham area northward. Some of the stronger storms:

* In the downtown Birmingham area and near the airport
* Over extreme NE Tuscaloosa County
* Along the Pickens-Tuscaloosa County line between Tuscaloosa and Aliceville
* Along the Etowah-St. Clair County line west of Gadsden
* Along the Lawrence-Morgan County line between Moulton and Decatur
* Over SW DeKalb County in extreme NE Alabama

They were moving slowly toward the NE, but they do not appear to be producing excessive lightning like a lot of the ones we have had in the last few weeks.

The Thursday afternoon map discussion video is on the web, and also available on iTunes:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

In the forecast for today, we mentioned isolated showers this afternoon. That is good since we sure have some on the radar this afternoon. They are widely spaced, but there is one strong storm producing lots of lightning where Walker, Blount, and Cullman counties all come together. We have even had reports of some small hail from that storm.

Seems like the showers and storms have formed on a dry line which seperates the lower dewpoints over North Alabama from the moist air over the southern two-thirds of the state. At 2:30 p.m. our SKYCAM network shows a dewpoint of 56 at Hamilton, but the dewpoint is up to 65 at Birmingham and Mt. Cheaha. Also, the southwest flow at 500 mb is also favorable for a few showers.

TOMORROW AND THE WEEKEND: Still no real change in our thinking. We might have a few showers around each afternoon, but there is no well defined trigger for rain and any showers or storms that form should be pretty isolated. Most communities will be dry, and afternoon temperatures should reach the upper 80s. Nights won't be as cool as low level moisture continues to rise across Alabama.

NEXT WEEK: The 12Z GFS continues the trend of pushing the best chance of rain toward the end of the week. Looks like any showers on Monday and Tuesday will be widely spaced. A cold front slips in here by late Thursday and Friday, and becomes stationary, which hopefully will bring some beneficial rain to the state in about a week or so.

FLORENCE: The system has been handled very well by all of the global models, it still looks like Florence will remain east of the Atlantic coast next week as it recurves into the open Atlantic. Still might be a close call for Nova Scotia in about 6 to 7 days. Florence is having some problems with dry air and shear, but it still has a good chance of becoming a significant hurricane in coming days over the open Atlantic.

ELSEWHERE: Florence has a very large circulation is is taking much of the central Atlantic; elsewhere the tropics are fairly quiet.

I sure enjoyed seeing the big crowd out at Glenwood today; I spoke with students from the Allan Cott and Lakeview schools today; look for them on ABC 33/40 news at 5:00. Glenwood, Inc. is a non profit organization, incorporated in 1973 for the purpose of educating and treating children, adolescents, and adults who are emotionally disturbed, mentally ill, and those diagnosed with autism. For more than 30 years, Glenwood has been devoted to helping individuals reach their full potential and be productive members of society. It is a great ministry and I always enjoy coming out to visit.

I will have the next map discussion video posted by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow... have a great evening!

Occasional showers continue this afternoon over Extreme SE Alabama--part of a larger area of showers over South Georgia and North Florida.

Widely separated thunderstorms continue over North Alabama. Just before 3 pm, they extended from Pickens and Lamar County eastward across Fayette, Walker, North Tuscaloosa and South Cullman County.

Only a small percentage of that general area getting wet.

Strongest ones were near the Walker-Cullman County line and over the NE corner of Tuscaloosa.

Movement slowly toward the NNE.

Instead of Molly adventures today, I want to tell a story about Kim Langston
and her dog, Citgo. (I received permission from Kim to run this story)

Kim is the 33/40 Skywatcher for the Winfield area. Citgo
disappeared into the woods the last week of May. When that happened, Kim
prayed and prayed because there are a lot of coyotes in that area.

Citgo had been severely abused before Kim owned her so Kim prayed that her life was
not going to tragically end by getting killed by the coyotes.

Kim went deep into the woods in search of Citgo and also got lost.She also lost her cell phone.
A search party did not find her until 1:30 the next morning but there was no
Citgo.

Kim continued to pray that someone would find Citgo and take care of
her.

Prayers were answered. The second week in June, Citgo came to someone's
yard and the people fed and took good care of her.

However, it was two months later, on August 12, when Kim was driving past
a house and saw a dog on the front porch. She turned around twice and
drove by. Finally she stopped. It was indeed Citgo. The house was not far from
where they found Kim in the woods.

Kim and Citgo are reunited now. Kim says that God reminded her, by the blessing of
Citgo, and how the story turned out, that He is still in control abd that she should not worry.

A great story, Kim and thanks for letting us use it. As I have said before, I don't know what I would do if Little Miss Molly was misssing that long.