As I write this post, tornados are spinning across central Alabama and others have occurred in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. More will follow later tonight as a cold front slices across the Gulf Coast States.
The severe outbreak of long-duration tornados is the result of warm, humid air at the surface, cold air aloft and wind shear produced by southerly surface winds and southwesterly winds at higher elevations; the supercells and their tornados are moving from the southwest to the northeast. In addition to the tornados and intense lightning, the storms will drop torrential rain, setting the stage for flash flooding.
As the system's cold front races eastward tonight, it will produce strong, straight-line winds, severe thunderstorms and imbedded tornados from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Carolina Coast. Widespread damage to trees and structures is, unfortunately, expected across the Southeast.
