No heavy showers within a 50 mile radius of Birmingham at 8 tonight.

NWS continues a Flash Flood Warning for Elmore and Autauga County until 8:30 pm.

Several roads were covered by water in Elmore County.

Very heavy rain now falling in Pickens and North Sumter County near the Mississippi border. Moving slowly east.

Thanks to Scott for a rainfall measurement of 2.98 inches of rain in one hour and 15 minutes this afternoon in Coosa County. He is located between Rockford and Weogufka. That is one of the heaver amounts we have received so far.

(Scan down for other reports plus a tropical discussion)

NOTE: Please scan down for other posts that are still valid including a discussion on the future of the newly born Tropical Depression.

No more Flash Flood Warning for Jefferson County. Everything well south of area.

At 5 pm, the remaining part of that broken line of storms extending from Clay County westward across South Shelby. Light to moderate showers continued over SW Jefferson near McCalla and Tannehill State Park.

A separate batch of storms producing locally heavy rain over Marion and North Fayette County in NW Alabama.

ACTUAL REPORTS

.....Exactly one inch of rain at the ABC 33/40 studios in Riverchase almost all of it in 30 minutes.

.....Vacationing Jason Simpson reports 2.50 inches of rain around lunchtime at Holly Pond in East Cullman County. Most of it in about an hour!

.....Brian Peters reports only only 0.20 of an inch at Helena but "tons of thunder."

.....Only about one-tenth of an inch in NE Trussville.

Flash Flood Warning a few more minutes (till 4:45 pm) for East Central Jefferson County.

Main storms now from extreme SW Jefferson County across South Shelby into South Talladega County. Still moving south.

Heaviest rain of all over South Shelby County.

Scan down for earlier information and for some Tropical Depression information...

We are in for some busy days...but life goes on.

The first Tropical Depression of 2005 formed this afternoon over the NW Caribbean this afternoon. Here is what the National Huricane Center thinks at this time:

.....By tomorrow it will grow into Tropical Storm Arlene over the Southern Gulf of Mexico..

.....Early Saturday afternoon, the center of Arlene will be over the North Gulf of Mexico south of the Mississippi-Alabama Coast.

.....Landfall late Saturday between Biloxi and Mobile.

.....Movement continues north along the Alabama-Mississippi border to between Columbus and Tupelo (very near the Alabama border) by Sunday afternoon. By that time back down to Tropical Depression.

.....This can bring much rain to Alabama...especially the west half of the state.

.....Much caution advised. The track could change quite a bit before landfall.

.....We will watch and wait. We encourage you to watch later weather information very closely if you are planning a trip to the Northwest Florida-Alabama-Mississippi coast for the weekend.

The first Tropical Depression of 2005 was announced by the National Hurricane center late this afternoon. It will probably grow into Tropical Storm Arlene later:
--------------------------------------------------------
BULLETIN
TROPICAL DEPRESSION ONE ADVISORY NUMBER 1
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
5 PM EDT WED JUN 08 2005

...TROPICAL DEPRESSION FORMS IN THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN...

AT 5 PM EDT...2100Z...THE GOVERNMENT OF CUBA HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WATCH FOR WESTERN CUBA FOR THE PROVINCE OF PINAR DEL RIO AND THE ISLE OF YOUTH.

INTERESTS IN THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS SYSTEM.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 5 PM EDT...2100Z...THE POORLY-DEFINED CENTER OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION ONE WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 17.2 NORTH... LONGITUDE 84.0 WEST OR ABOUT 235 MILES... 375 KM... SOUTHWEST OF GRAND CAYMAN

Flash Flood Warning continues for East Central Jefferson County until 4:45.

However, heaviest storms now more to the south. At 4 pm, the broken line of thunderstorms extended from South Walker County, swingind down across SW and South Jefferson County into North Shelby.

Most of the heavier rain now south of downtown Birmingham and the Eastwood Mall area.

Storms moving south. Still much lightning.

FROG STRANGLER AT 3340 STUDIOS

Downpour at the ABC 33/40 Studios in Riverchase. James Spann reports 0.84 of an inch in a mere 15 minutes!

Earlier this afternoon, around 2:30, the St. Clair County EMA Office reported several trees down and blocking US 231 just south of Highway 33. This is about 5 miles SSW of Ashville.

Earlier, some flooding also reported near First Avenue North and 50th Street in East Birmingham (Woodlawn)

The Wednesday afternoon web video (map discussion) is on the server:

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

What a busy day...

Took the AMS CBM exam this morning (CBM=certified broadcast meteorologist)... this is the new program just started by the AMS that will ultimately replace the existing "seal of approval" program. Glad to report I passed...

Big storms blowing up all around the state in scattered pockets; a flash flood warning was just issued for Jefferson county until 4:45, mainly for flooding on the eastern side of town. J.B. Elliott will keep the blog updated with current storm reports this afternoon.

HERE COMES ARLENE: Won't have a ton of time to write material here this afternoon, please watch the video for complete details on the tropical situation. Still looks like a tropical depression is forming now in the northwest Caribbean, and will become tropical storm Arlene once it hits the warm southern Gulf of Mexico. The blend of computer models puts the system into the Mississippi coast Saturday night. Landfall could be anywere from Morgan City, LA to Destin, FL, but Mobile will probably be hammered by wind and heavy rain.

I am not sure Arlene can make it to hurricane status, but one way or another heavy rain will be the biggest problem. We will highlight a good chance of rain and storms at times over the weekend, with perhaps the best chance of heavy rain coming Sunday over the western half of the state. We will fine tune this as the system gets closer.

TORNADO TIME: Looks like a very potent tornado setup ahead for parts of Oklahoma and Kansas Friday and Saturday. Might be a high risk situation... the storm chasers will be out in full force I am sure.

HIGH AMPLITUDE: What an upper air pattern developing on the GFS in the June 18-25 time frame. Huge trough on the east coast; that would suggest a shot of getting some dry air in here with cooler nights. Hard to imagine this time of the year, but it is not impossible. Will be interesting to see if this trend holds.

Again... watch the video for the full story... have to get back to TV updates on ABC 33/40...

Slow-moving thunderstorms are dumping an oversupply of rain in some areas this afternoon.

The NWS issued a Flash Flood Warning for East Central Jefferson County until 4:45, including Birmingham.

The extremely heavy rain was falling mostly in the Eastwood Mall Area. But it was pouring from just east of downtown over toward Leeds.

Very heavy rain also falling over parts of North and Central Walker County.

The Severe Thunderstorm Warning for St. Clair County expired at 2:45.

The warning is for St. Clair county in North Central Alabama NE of the Birmingham area.

The storm was near Ashville and moving east slowly at 5 mph.

This will allow it to dump heavy amounts of rain in addition to possible hail and damaging winds.

Much lightning with this storm as it moves generally toward Ragland.

Most of the showers and thunderstgorms were over North Alabama just before 2 'oclock, from just north of Jefferson County to the Tennessee border. Some of the stronger storms:

.....Between Muscle Shoals and Athens
.....Just NE of Huntsville
.....Near the Blount-St. Clair County line
.....Over parts of SE Alabama from west of Phenix City southward

The storms were moving toward the SE generally, but some of the thunderstorms were fooling around and not moving much at all.

Based on radar estimates, close to two inches has fallen from some of the storms near the Cullman-Morgan County line.