Hale County was one among many in West Alabama under a tornado watch announced today at 2:00 p.m. by the National Weather Service.
Tornado Watch 21, which is in effect until 8:00 p.m., includes Colbert, Cullman, Fayette, Franklin, Greene, Hale, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marion, Morgan, Pickens, Sumter, Tuscaloosa, Walker, and Winston counties.
As the watch was released, NWS Birmingham’s Twitter account noted, “This watch does not YET include the cities of Birmingham, Centreville, Selma, or points east. However, additional counties may be added in later watches.”
“NOW IS THE TIME TO PREPARE,” concluded the post.
A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for a tornado to form. Residents are urged to be on the lookout for further weather updates as the storm progresses through the state. Have a reliable way of monitoring the weather, preferably a weather radio or a cell phone with good service. Relying on tornado sirens to notify you of an approaching storm leaves little time to get to safety.
In a post issued shortly before the warning, the NWS announced that the Demopolis weather radio transmitter, broadcasting on 162.475 MHz, was off the air due to a technical issue. NWS directed people to follow the Selma (162.450 MHz) or Tuscaloosa (162.400 MHz) bands instead. The agency said it had notified its repair technicians of the outage, but said the issue’s expected resolution time was unknown.
Selma’s transmitter, which had been out for several days, was only restored to service on Wednesday night ahead of the advancing storm system.
