2 AM Storm Update

Posted on: 2:00 am, August 17, 2012, by , updated on: 02:02am, August 17, 2012

This band of heavy thunderstorms is steadily weakening, but there is a lot of momentum pushing some gusty winds ahead of the actual precipitation, thunder and lightning. Severe weather is decreasingly likely over the next couple of hours, but some wind gusts to 40 MPH are possible. We have only seen 30-40 MPH gusts since this complex moved south of US 64 in Southern Tennessee:

32 MPH at Claysville (Khonda Thress)
28 MPH at Providence (Huntsville) and Decatur (Pryor Field)
26 MPH at Meridianville (Mad. Co. Executive Airport)
23 MPH at Fayetteville, Tenn. and Muscle Shoals (NW Alabama Regional Airport)
22 MPH at Scottsboro
19 MPH at Toney
17 MPH at Madison

The wind associated with the decaying line of storms is about as bad as what you’d find behind a good, strong cold front in the winter months. In fact, there are many January, February and March days when the sky is crystal clear that the wind is worse than it will be with the storms for the rest of the morning.

There still may be some tree branches blown down, or even a few trees especially in the higher terrain of Jackson and DeKalb Counties where winds may be a bit stronger (approaching 40 MPH).

There is still some heavy rain along with lightning and thunder to go for a large area of the Tennessee Valley in North Alabama through 4 AM, but if you are sitting up worried about the storms, or if your dog has pounced on your head because of the wind and thunder, there’s no need to stay up long.

If you do not have a NOAA weather radio, tonight is a perfect example of why you should have one of them! Sometimes nature throws us a curve ball; in this case, it curved hard to the right as it passed Nashville this evening.

If you are not a fan of having a NOAA weather radio, at least invest in a smart phone app or take part in the free Baron Saf-T-Net program. Plus, you can always be up-to-date with our website and other mobile offerings:

WHNT.com’s Maps & Radar Page
Mobile Applications
Baron Saf-T-Net

-Jason
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