Southern Tornadoes, More Severe Weather; Here in Vermont, VERY Changeable, Windy

House destroyed by tornado in Alabama Thursday.
Photo by Butch Hill 

As expected, Thursday was a horrible, tragic day in the South, with so far five confirmed death from tornadoes. Videos at the bottom of this post. 

Tragic weather in the South, and active weather here in Vermont, for sure. As usual, we'll get into the Vermont weather in a bit, but we'll grab the national weather news of the day first:

SOUTHERN TORNADOES

As forecasters had feared, at least two of the tornadoes were intense, long lasting and fast moving. 

One tornado tracked from near Tuscaloosa to the Birmingham metro area early in the afternoon.  

Another large tornado raced across central and northeastern Alabama in the late afternoon and evening. Radar images showed this tornado hoisting debris into the air for a good hour as it plowed through the state. At least two supercells thunderstorms traveled at least 100 miles, with tornadoes on the ground for almost all of that distance.

The deaths included three members of one family in Ohatchee, Alabama, according to press reports

ABC33/40 in Birmingham, Alabama is reporting that Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade is saying more fatalities are likely.  

Yesterday, I noted that the home of revered Alabama meteorologist and tornado expert James Spann was hit by a tornado.  His wife was home, but received her husband's tornado warning and went into a storm shelter the couple had installed to withstand the strongest tornadoes.

She's fine, and Spann later reported that damage to his home wasn't as bad as initially feared, and not as bad as some homes in the neighborhood, which were extensively damaged or destroyed. 

After learning his wife was safe, Spann returned to the air, and provided many more hours of storm coverage.

So far, there have been 24 reports of tornadoes.

The South is not out of the woods yet. A second storm is set to produce severe weather Saturday in parts of the Mid-Mississippi Valley, especially Tennessee, and in the Southeast Sunday. 

After that, severe weather should go pretty quiet for a few days at least. 

VERMONT IMPACTS

Expect a LOT of changes in the weather for the next few days.  We will be roller-coastering, which is fairly typical for this time of year. 

Crocuses enjoying record warmth in my St. Albans,
Vermont yard on Thursday. 

Thursday was certainly one for the record books. Burlington had a high of 73 degrees, besting the old record for the date by five degrees. 

Plattsburgh, New York soared to an impressive 76 degrees, beating the old record for the date by a whopping 11 degrees.

Other places around here set high temperature records by wide margins. Montpelier reached 70 degrees, besting the old record by six degrees. St. Johnsbury got up to 69 degrees, shattering the old record of 57. 

Temperatures were remarkably warm for this time of year as dawn broke. Most of Vermont was in the 50s.

Although a flood watch remains in effect, rainfall has so far been a disappointment as of early this morning.

The first wave of rain that was due to come in has, as of 7 a.m., produced less than a tenth of an inch of rain in most of Vermont, although the far north has had a bit more.  A little more rain was coming through as I write this. 

We still have shots at more rain today, so it won't be as if we completely missed out on needed rain. 

The flood watch is out mostly due to runoff from snow in the mountains, aided and abetted by what rain we do get.  The upper reaches of the Missisquoi River up near North Troy are under a flood warning, as minor flooding has been noted up there.

Things are still looking pretty interesting this afternoon.  Ahead of a cold front, showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop.  A few storms are forecast to become strong. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has kept Vermont in a marginal risk for severe storms today.  That means there could be isolated damaging wind gusts. 

As I mentioned last evening, the Storm Prediction Center has a very, very low, but not zero chance of a brief tornado in Vermont today. I'll stress that the chances of that happening are quite slim. If there's any localized damage from strong thunderstorm wind gusts this afternoon, it will almost certainly be from straight-line winds.

Speaking of wind, you'll notice over the next week or so it'll be frequently windy. Those March winds will close out the month and continue on into April. Behind the cold front this evening and tonight, strong northwest winds will drive in much colder air, but nothing weird for late March.

The winds later today and tonight could gust to 50 mph, especially in eastern Vermont, so a wind advisory is up for those areas. 

That new storm coming in Sunday will give us another slug of rain, and also perhaps some gusty south winds that day.  But at least it will be sort of mild for this time of year - low 50s. 

Then, as the storm strengthens near and northeast of Maine, we'll get another blast of northwest winds Sunday night and Monday.  We'll probably even see a little back-side snow out of this, but accumulations won't amount to much. Still, Monday will be raw.

Then, we go well above normal with temperatures again, going to 60 degrees or better by Wednesday. Then, another windy storm system, and back to March chill to open up April late next week. 

Tornado videos:

A twister roaring through Pelham, Alabama Thursday:

People in this truck were trying to drive to a tornado shelter when the tornado caught up with them. Very luckily, they're fine. But probably in the market for new underwear:

News report from the Eagle Point subdivision near Birmingham. Some substantial brick homes leveled, while houses next door are OK: