The right kind of weather spins up Alabama tornadoes

Sunlight Tuesday morning reveals the extent of damage left behind from tornadoes that blasted across Alabama in the middle of the night. A squall line of tornadoes pushed just north of Birmingham leaving one dead and forcing over a dozen to be rushed to the hospital.

The tornado stood out on the radar in Forestdale when the National Weather Service warned of a confirmed tornado on the ground about 13 miles northwest of Birmingham. It continued to track northeast of Birmingham, causing damage in the city of Center Point.

The city’s Mayor Bobby Scott said that “the back half of Hilldale Baptist Church’s roof is missing, and the city’s recreation center also suffered damage in the storm.”

Will this storm system impact Jacksonville?

Yes, Northeast Florida will see rain Wednesday, but severe weather is unlikely. Parts of southern Georgia may get a few thunderstorms, but the setup that triggered the tornado lashing is quite different locally.

The warmth over Jacksonville was the mechanism for the dangerous weather as it clashed with cooler air behind a cold front pushing across Tennessee. Alabama became the battleground as humid warm Gulf air surged northward behind the warm front.

A map shows just the right conditions existed where the tornadoes formed.

Inside the orange lines are regions where a majority of significant tornadoes (F2 or greater damage) have been associated with the type of weather forecasted. When STP values are below 1, most supercells fail to produce tornadoes.

Another way to look for tornado hot spots is with Theta-E maps. Regions of potentially more buoyant air are represented by green lines. When wind barbs point up the slope perpendicularly, it represents rising air where thunderstorms tend to first develop and converge.