NWS has issued a Tornado Watch until noon today for:

+ Extreme SE Louisiana including New Orleans
+ Extreme South Mississippi including all the coastal towns and cities
+ Extreme SW Alabama including Mobile and Gulf Shores

The counties in Alabama:

Baldwin
Clarke
Mobile
Washington

90% of Alabama is getting rain at this hour. There are pockets of moderate to heavy rain. However the heaviest is over in Mississippi approaching the Alabama border.

A few sample Alabama rainfall amounts so far:

0.65 at Riverchase (3340 Weather Office--thanks Jason)
0.67 Greystone Cove (James Spann)
0.78 Clanton
0.71 Pell City
0.65 Steele (North St. Clair County)
0.64 at Cook Springs (I-20 in South St. Clair County)
0.44 in Sylacauga
0.48 atLogan Martin Dam

All of the state will get a drenching today but it appears that severe weather will be mostly a South Alabama event.

It is really time to begin getting ready for the fall tornado season. For all practical purposes, it is upon us. Alabama is one of the only places in the world with two distinct severe weather seasons; our spring season comes in March, April, and May, while the fall season runs through all of November, and the first half of December. As we have pointed out here many times, most of the really serious severe weather events in Alabama have come during the fall season since 1999.

We have worked very hard in the last 12 months to get systems in place to enhance our ground truth. The ABC 33/40 SKYCAM network, and our large team of Skywatchers, should help confirm signatures we see on radar and hopefully reduce the number of false alarms. At this moment we have 10 SKYCAM sites in operation, in Birmingham, Inverness, Tuscaloosa, Gadsden, Mt. Cheaha, Cullman, Jasper, Hamilton, Demopolis, and Gulf Shores. A new SKYCAM site should be coming online in Clanton within the next week or two as we continue to build the network. Over 100 weather spotters are part of our Skywatcher network; they report back to us in real time using instant message technology. This is going to be extremely helpful during severe weather events, not only with real time reports on severe storms, but the damage reports after the storm is gone.

We ask that you review your home tornado safety plan with your family. Know the safe place in the home, and be sure all the kids are aware of it. If you live in a mobile home, you must have a place to go at any hour of the day or night in the event of a tornado warning. And, most importantly, for everyone you must have a good NOAA Weather Radio receiver in your home so you will always get the warnings. Forget outdoor sirens, just go get a NOAA Weather Radio, preferably one with specific area message encoding (SAME) technology so you can choose the counties for which the alarm sounds.

And, of course, when that NOAA Weather Radio alarm sounds, turn on ABC 33/40 and we will be there for you with the latest emergency weather information you need!

The Severe Thunderstorm Warning for South Clay County expired at 6:15. That line of storms now moving quickly east across Randolph and Tallapoosa County.

The NWS decided to not issue a watch for East Alabama and part of West Georgia. Storms generally going downhill.

A low pressure area was centered near Anniston early this evening and moving NE. Behind the low, winds over west and NW Alabama were shifting to the NW bringing in much cooler weather. Just look at this temperature profile at 6 PM, going from SE to NW:

83 in Montgomery
79 in Alexander City
64 in Muscle Shoals
46 in Tunica, Miss., and Memphis
44 in NW Arkansas

NOT A GOOD TIME IN OCEAN SPRINGS
Scott McClellan, our contact in Ocean Springs, Miss., east of Biloxi, explains that they experienced three Severe Thunderstorm Warnings and five Tornado Warnings in the last three days. They got 1.77 inches of rain quickly today bringing the total to almost eight inches in the last three days!

ALABAMA RAINFALL
We will post some of today's rainfall amounts later. One report that we do have is 2.50 inches in Brilliant.

The Severe Thunderstorm Warning for South Clay County in East Central Alabama at 6:15 PM. Soon after 6 PM, the storm was south of Ashland and moving east at 50.

The NWS decided to NOT issue a Severe Thunderstorm or Tornado Warning for parts of East Alabama.

The latest is a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for South Clay County until 6:15 pm, CDT.

The storm was some 15 miles west of Millerville, near Sylacauga, moving east very rapidly at 50 mph.

May have winds over 60 mph.

Ashland and Lineville will also be affected.

The Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Talladega County was cancelled.

A WATCH COMING SOON?
The atmosphere over East Alabama has become more unstable. The Storm prediction center is considering a watch for parts of east Central Alabama and West Georgia. Could be either a Severe Thunderstorm Watch or possibly a Tornado Watch.

Here is the text:
----------------------------
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
512 PM CDT THU OCT 19 2006

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
SOUTHWESTERN TALLADEGA COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL ALABAMA
THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF...SYLACAUGA...CHILDERSBURG

* UNTIL 600 PM CDT

* AT 508 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS
OF 60 MPH. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED 8 MILES SOUTHWEST OF
CHILDERSBURG...AND MOVING NORTHEAST AT 45 MPH.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR...
MIGNON AND SYLACAUGA BY 520 PM CDT

IF YOU ARE IN ITS PATH...PREPARE IMMEDIATELY FOR DAMAGING WINDS UP
TO 60 MPH...AND DEADLY CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING. PEOPLE OUTSIDE
SHOULD MOVE TO A SHELTER...PREFERABLY INSIDE A STRONG BUILDING BUT
AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

The most widespread rain in the state was over the northern third at mid afternoon, especially from Walker, Cullman and Blount Counties northward.

Doppler radar estimates show as much as 1.70 inches of rain so far today over parts of North Fayette and South Marion Counties. The heaviest rain at mid afternoon, was from Winston and Cullman Counties northward through Morgan, Madison and Limestone Counties.

The 33/40 skycam at Hamilton indicated 1.48 inches of rain by 3:00. A line of moderate to heavy showers extended southward from Fayette through West Tuscaloosa County to near Eutaw and Livingston. The atmosphere has become more unstable in that area and the dew point has climbed to the mid 70s in Demopolis. We will watch that closely.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch continues until 7:00 p.m. for SW Alabama from about Clarke County southward and also three counties in the NW Florida Panhandle. Scroll down to see a complete list.

Be sure and read James's XTREME video weather discussion which will be posted in a few minutes.

It is for SW Alabama and Extreme NW Florida. Here is a list of the counties:
---------------------
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WS 838
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
120 PM CDT THU OCT 19 2006

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 838 IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 700 PM CDT
FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS

ALABAMA COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE
BALDWIN BUTLER CLARKE
CONECUH COVINGTON CRENSHAW
ESCAMBIA MOBILE MONROE
WASHINGTON

FLORIDA COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE
ESCAMBIA OKALOOSA SANTA ROSA

Here is another first-hand account of the awful storm in the Great Smoky Mountains. Many thanks for David Reed, who is a certified storm spotter for sending this information:

We just got back this evening from a four-day stay in Townsend, Tennessee. The reports of damage in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are staggering.

A park spokesperson was interviewed earlier today on WIVK Radio in Knoxville, which was covering the event. They are saying that damage is considerable in many areas, including Cades Cove, Newfound Gap Road, Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area, Elkmont Campgrounds, and a host of others, all on the Tennessee side. The park was closed off entirely on the TN side when we left there this afternoon at 2:45pm EDT (Tuesday 10/17/06). Foothills Parkway, just west of Townsend, was also closed. Also, as of this afternoon, the damage assessment from Cades Cove was incomplete at best, as crews had only made it as far as the campground area. It is unknown as to whether there is any damage to any of the structures in the cove, although radio news reports indicated that there are literally hundreds of trees down, and that it just for Cades Cove.

Winds were clocked at 106 mph in many areas of the park. We had high winds in Townsend, as well. Reports of sustained winds over 65 mph, with gusts around 90+ mph were received in and around Townsend overnight last night. This event lasted from about 11:15 pm EDT till about 7:30 am EDT today. There were numerous cabins without power in the Townsend area this morning. Needless to say, we hardly got any sleep at our cabin, but we are alive, and made it back home to Shelby County tonight at about 8pm local time.

I remember Ivan coming through Central Alabama in 2004. The winds we experienced last night were much stronger and far worse than anything we experienced with Ivan.

God Bless,

David Reed, K4DFR
NWS Certified Severe Storm Spotter

BTW, I forgot to mention: Park Rangers report that the wind speeds recorded overnight last night and this morning are the highest winds EVER recorded in the history of the GSM National Park.

I talked to a Park Ranger at the "Y" intersection just outside of Townsend earlier today (where the road forks one way to Gatlinburg, and the other way to Cades Cove). He said that even the rangers weren't able to reach much of the damage this afternoon. They had called in all sorts of heavy equipment for moving and cutting large trees.

The road to Gatlinburg was closed at that time, just before we left the area.

David Reed

As advertised, a big part of Alabama has received a real soaking since yesterday. It was a God-send because so much of the state was very dry.

This should also help the autumn color situation.

At 4:30 this morning, heavy rain continued. However, rain has slackened greatly over the NW counties. The heaviest rain was over Walker, Tuscaloosa, Fayette and Sumter County. Rain will become heavier in the Birmingham Metro area between 5 an 6 this morning.

A Tornado Watch is still in effect until 9 o'clock this morning for part of SW Alabama. Please scroll down to see the details on that.

It is still very windy this morning especially on the ridges. Birmingham Airport was reporting SE gusts to 37 mph at 4 am. Here are some wind reports from the network of 33/40 Skycams:

Birmingham...ESE 22, with gusts to 49 mph
Cullman...gusts to 45
Gadsdn...gusts to 39
Gulf Shores...gusts to 46
Hamilton...gusts 37
Inverness...gusts 37
Jasper...gusts 33 (one inch of additional rain since midnight)
Tuscaloosa...gusts 37 with 1.16 additional rain since midnight

Later this morning, we will try to post a more complete list of rainfall amounts but here are a few early notes:

* 3.42 inches at Fayette (3340 skywatcher)
* 0.98 at Tuscaloosa Airport just in the last 6 hours
* 5.62 inches at Mississippi State University, Starkville
* 4.29 inches in Greenwood, Miss., Monday, a record for the date
* 5.33 inches at Vicksburg, also a record
* Stores and businesses were flooded in downtown Columbia, Miss.
* Water was in houses and streets under water at Canton, Miss., Madison County
* Numerous trees down across Hines County, Miss.
* 1.16 inches of rain in NE Trussville (through 4:45 am)