Severe weather event across Alabama this weekend

Published 1:25 pm Thursday, March 13, 2025

Saturday night into Sunday morning will be a high end severe weather event and ALL of Alabama is in an Enhanced Risk, according to a release from Chambers County EMA. Storms will be capable of producing large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. Based on forecast parameters, a few strong tornadoes will be possible (EF-2 or higher). These storms should be out of the state by daybreak Sunday.

*We have to walk a very fine line between introducing fear and describing the potential for a high end weather event. For those that have weather anxiety, just remember than even during high end severe weather events, odds of any spot being hit by a tornado are relatively low. But stronger wording is appropriate for this type of threat.

*Our goal for any severe weather event in Alabama is no loss of life, and no serious injuries. It takes us all working together to make that happen. The most important part of preparedness is to be sure you have a reliable way of hearing warnings. Never, ever an outdoor siren. Never. A NOAA Weather Radio should be in every Alabama home and business. On your phone, have WEA enabled (Wireless Emergency Alerts), and have the 33/40 weather app installed.

*If you are reading this, you pay attention to weather. Understand many people don’t keep up with the weather, so you can be a hero during the severe weather event. If you have a friend or loved one in a tornado warning polygon, be sure and call or text them to let them know of the immediate danger. Let them know now that severe storms are likely late Friday night through early Sunday morning.

~ Chambers EMA
If you have plans for Saturday, the National Weather Service and Emergency Management Agencies, highly recommend that any plans, especially for outdoors, be canceled. The rain and storms begin today and last through daybreak Sunday morning – these will alternate from low end storms to high end threat storms, with Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning being the highest risk for threats of intense long track tornadoes, damaging wind up to 70 mph, and hail ranging from dime size to golf ball size, localized flooding. The time frame for the weekend threat is 5pm to 4am Eastern time for Chambers county. The timing is broad due to the potential for supercells forming ahead of the squall line and embedded tornadoes within the squall line. Expect downed trees, power outages, and damage to structures. All threats are on the table for Saturday. Prepare now!

But do not dismiss today. Today is a marginal risk but the storms thus far in other counties are fairly significant and are producing damaging winds and large hail, so a severe thunderstorm warning could be issued today as the storms come through our county. The timing for today is 12pm – 8pm Eastern time.

As of now we are not in a risk area for severe threats on Friday, with the exception of a very small sector of the NW corner of the county, and that is a marginal risk. They do not expect this to change, but time will tell.