As the remnants of the hurricane, now we'd call them Tropical Depression Francine, continue to work up through Mississippi, and the rain bands move up through Alabama, we're having a lot of trees come down from high winds not related to specific thunderstorms or even showers, just strong winds from the sharp pressure gradient. Air pressure is very low in the center of a hurricane. The pressure is higher over this way, and the meeting of those two kinds of barometric pressure produces strong winds, is the simplest way I know to put it. So need to be careful if out in a vehicle or if you're in a house even, might not want to be up on the top floor if there are trees around. And maybe don't be right by windows at the edge of the house if you can help it, and really want to play it safe.
So the main Huntsville weather radio transmitter is down, as noted in the statement below. So is the one in Winfield, which I believe is Channel 6 on weather radios (Huntsville is Channel 1), and farther into Central Alabama, so is the Demopolis transmitter, that some people use too. It's unfortunate when we have outages during an event like this, but it does happen sometimes.
Have not seen any reports of flash flooding or an isolated tornado up this way yet, but later in the day, tonight, through at least the early part of tomorrow, North Alabama and perhaps Southern Middle Tennessee (especially tomorrow) will have the same risk for those things that they are having further South already.
For flood waters, just remember the slogan that if you see water that completely covers a roadway, you "Turn around - don't drown."
If a Tornado Warning comes out later today, even if you have to get it via Wireless Emergency Alerts on a cell phone, if you don't have a weather radio or the transmitter is down, maybe the reception is not good for an alternate channel . . . remember that you need to get into a sturdy house or other structure that is properly anchored to the ground. Mobile homes are not safe places in tornadoes.
In a site-built house or other sturdy building,
* Stay away from windows.
* Get to the lowest floor.
* Try to be in a small room - like a bathroom, closet, or hallway.
* Make that shelter room as near the center of the building as you can, to put some walls between you and the outside.
There is not going to be much lightning with this system. It's an odd situation where it you get a tropical shower, and the wind starts picking up, it might just be some gusty winds, or that shower might end up producing a tornado. These kinds of tornadoes come from what are called low-topped supercells, where the clouds don't go up as high as the classic supercells in the Spring or in November. The tornadoes tend to happen very fast, and often don't last long. The damage they do is usually on the lower end of what tornadoes are capable of, but we all know, any tornado is dangerous. And the main thing with the low chance of a tornado, or just these strong gradient winds, is that I feel some concern about people in mobile homes, especially if they've got trees around. And people who might be caught out driving today. Driving to and from work or school is one thing, and caution would be wise. But some people are delivering food or other goods, driving for hours at a time. And they could even run up on a tree that's already been blown down in the road. That's a hazard we have to keep in mind with events like this. And of course somebody might try to drive into a flooded road somewhere, although hopefully not.
The good side of all this is that we certainly have needed the rain. And we're going to get it now.
Here is the latest estimate of how the tornado risk will shift northward through the day, tonight, into tomorrow. The main threat for Tennessee counties will likely come tomorrow. For some of North Alabama, especially closer to the TN state line, I think the best threat may actually come tonight, even though there usually is less chance for unstable air at night. The wind shear is really high like with any inland tropical system. But later this evening and tonight, everybody needs to be weather alert just in case we have any issues like that. And then tomorrow the risk will definitely include Tennessee counties.
And please understand that this threat is marginal. The risk of any spot getting a tornado is very low. When you see a 2-5% chance, we wouldn't even worry about it if it was just a rain shower. But a tornado, even a "relatively weak" one, is dangerous for the people it hits or comes close to. So it's worth mentioning, even if it turns out we only see one in the whole region from this event. And just encourage everybody to have a safe place to go in case one tries to spin up in these spiral rain bands. This is a standard risk with any hurricane that moves inland before it dies out.
Main thing is to be able to get out of a mobile home and shelter in a sturdy house or other sturdy building - basic idea is to get as low as you can and as near the center as you can, away from any windows. With this setup, might just have a minute or two to get to shelter, so if you get a warning, please act on it right away, get yourself and loved ones to the safest place you have available. It's not a big tornado threat like you see sometimes in November or in the main Spring season, but these situations can sometimes catch people off guard. If somebody gets badly hurt from a tornado in a setup like this, it'll probably be something like: They were standing right by a window that blew out. Or they were in a mobile home that a tree fell and split the thing in half. Or maybe the winds turned a mobile home over, where they couldn't turn over a site-built house. Those are the concerns I have with this . . .
12:20 PM - Here are a few items from social media . . .
About 39,000 in Alabama are without power… pic.twitter.com/jttDhzUoji
— James Spann (@spann) September 12, 2024
Power outages are already a problem, and we'll likely see a good many more before this event is over. Through tomorrow, we could see lots of people losing power. So it's a good time to make sure your batteries are charged on a phone or other important things. Maybe see if you've got some bottles of water and stuff like a hand-held can opener for food. Or can at least make a peanut butter sandwich if the power is out for a while and you can't cook anything . . . stuff like that.
But you know, with an event like this, worrying about convenience should be very secondary. It's a drag when the power goes out a while, but really, how many people have you ever heard about starving because the power went out for a few hours, or even a day or two . . . yeah, me neither. Don't think I've even heard of hospitalizations from cell phone withdrawals . . .
[11:30AM] With a few reports of power outages in different areas of the TN Valley due to gusty winds, be sure to practice generator safety! A Wind Advisory remains in effect through 7 AM Friday, during which increased power outages are likely due to downed trees/powerlines. pic.twitter.com/oUNnj3Rl1r
— NWS Huntsville (@NWSHuntsville) September 12, 2024
But a very real risk is people using generators and forgetting to put safety first. Even when we lose power from a snow or ice storm like very early this year, seems like any time people start using generators, someone ends up getting killed somewhere. I can't remember if I specifically heard of that this year, back in January, in Alabama or Tennessee. I just know it happens a lot, sort of like seeing wrecks during snow events, where everybody sort of groans and says, here we go, knew this was going to happen . . .
So I'm just interested in preventing the stuff that could actually do someone serious harm, or kill 'em.
One other serious thing is how to get weather alerts if the power goes out. Hopefully your weather radio has battery backup, or you at least have a battery-powered radio or one of those that winds up. Even if you have a cell phone on battery-saving mode to make it last longer, I believe WEA will still come through. That might vary from phone to phone though, but I would think those wireless emergency alerts are considered crucial enough to come through. Just make sure they are enabled and the phone is not in some kind of silent or "do not disturb" mode that might block a Tornado Warning. I know a lot of people turn WEA off for one reason or another. But an event like this, I'd turn it on. And you can turn them back off later. That's my advice. Safety first for today through tomorrow.
There is also such a thing as watching the sky and trusting your instincts. We've lost that I think, different from the days people lived mainly out in the country and didn't have a lot of modern conveniences. If you can tell the weather is turning threatening at your location, you don't have to wait to hear it on the radio or see it on TV or online. I hope this doesn't sound condescending, but some people really do need the reminder, it is perfectly fine to go ahead and get to a safe place just because you can tell the weather ain't looking right. These tropical tornadoes can be tough to warn for, and like we've already seen today, minor damage (mainly trees coming down) can happen just from wind gusts that aren't in a thunderstorm or even a rain shower.
992
NOUS44 KHUN 121602
PNSHUN
ALZ001>010-016-TNZ076-096-097-131700-
Public Information Statement
National Weather Service Huntsville AL
1102 AM CDT Thu Sep 12 2024
...Huntsville NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Station Remains Off
The Air Until Further Notice...
NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards transmitter KIH-20 operating on a
frequency of 162.400 MHz will be off the air until further
notice.
You can tune to station WNG-642 at Arab on a frequency of
162.525 MHz, WWF-44 at Fort Payne on a frequency of 162.500 MHz
to get your latest weather information.
$$
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