We start with breaking news at noon.
A tornado watch is now issued for parts
of North Georgia as we track the risk of
severe storms headed our way right now.
Well, we have team coverage with
our eleven alive storm trackers,
so let's get straight to chief
meteorologist Chris Holcomb and.
Guys, a very wet morning out there.
It really is. And we're watching this
line of storms that are moving our way.
Chesley's been monitoring
this all morning long.
We're watching these storms now
move through Alabama and Chesley.
Just within the past few minutes,
a new tornado watch was issued,
including parts of Northwest and
West Georgia as we're tracking
these storms moving our way.
Yeah, that watch means that we're
watching for the potential for
tornadoes to move into the area.
The ingredients are there.
We don't have any warnings as of yet,
and there's not many tornado warnings
right along that line so far,
Chris, you can see the severe
thunderstorm warnings. Yeah,
a lot of severe thunderstorm
warnings along with that.
And with that we have that line
of storms that has the heavy
rain with it and winds of around
60 miles an hour and Chesley.
What we're watching as we get into the
afternoon hours is our atmosphere is
pretty conducive as this line moves through.
I know you know, this looks like a
thin line pushing into our direction,
but as it comes in,
any part of that line does have the
potential due to our atmospheric
conditions to turn into rotating
thunderstorms that could cause
some tornadoes here in our area,
especially for the far north.
Western counties.
So you really have to be weather
aware for this afternoon.
We want to walk you through this
radar real quick here, Chris.
You can see you at lunch,
which is just talking about
just to the West of Huntsville.
Now starting through the east,
a lot of what you see here just to
the southeast of Southwest rather
of Huntsville will start to slide
up toward the Northeast and that
could clip by northwestern counties.
So we're really concerned about
that this afternoon and we'll put a
time on that for you in just a few.
Right now in our area,
we only have some scattered showers around.
You can see where the tornado
watch extends almost into Atlanta.
But as that storm moves a little closer,
I suspect that this watch will be.
That's what we're thinking.
We really think that this is
supposed to be in effect until 5:00
o'clock this afternoon, this watch.
But I really think that they'll be
extending that to include the metro
area and that might then extend
that expiration time to a little
bit later too. Alright,
let me let you know what you can expect.
We take a look at our storm prediction or
the storm prediction centers map and they
have adjusted this so far this afternoon.
So this is the latest information
that's coming to us now we can see
that the Level 3 threat we talked
about this Level 3 threat or an
enhanced risk for severe weather.
It has now been extended all morning long.
We were showing you this
over mainly the far north.
Western counties and now you
can see that extends all the way
up into Rayburn County as well.
This is the Level 3 threat or an
enhanced risk for severe weather.
Just South of that is where we have
the level 2 threat, heavy rain,
the damaging winds of course,
and we cannot rule out a brief tornado.
Now it's a little bit more likely
that we could see N tornadoes in this
Level 3 area here in the metro area.
A little bit further down to the
South there is the possibility
for a brief spin up tornado.
So you're certainly not out of it just
because we're not in that Level 3 threat.
And then further down to the South,
you can see down to the main area the
level one threat for severe weather, so.
Again, the heavy rain,
of course we have the moderate category
and also the damaging winds that we're
gonna talk about in just a few minutes here.
Low threat for tornadoes.
But again,
we gotta be weather ready folks,
just in case we get a brief spin up and
then we're not so much worried about
that hail outside of these thunderstorms.
The winds are already starting
to pick up out there.
They could be very strong as
well could down some trees.
Meteorologist Melissa Nord here
to talk more about that Melissa
and we've been watching chess
at the last couple of hours,
those winds already starting to pick up.
We have a wind advisory for all the metro
area that runs until 11:00 o'clock.
Tonight. And you see here in this bright
orange color up in Northwest Georgia,
that's a high wind warning where the winds
could actually top as much as 50 mph with
those gusts outside of thunderstorms.
And look at these winds picking up.
We were watching that live camera
in Rome a couple minutes ago.
The winds now gusting there to 36 mph,
21 mile per hour gusts in
Canton and Carrollton as well.
And the winds in next couple of hours
will pick up in the metro area as
well in advance of those storms.
So here's the hour by hour picture
of those wind gusts as we approach
the 2:00 o'clock.
Hour today those winds could be
gusting around 40 mph here in
Atlanta and anywhere between 35
and 45 mph across the metro.
And they'll peak as those
storms are coming through.
And even after the storms leave us still
staying breezy for the rest of the evening.
But finally as we approach
11:00 o'clock tonight,
we'll see those wind gusts coming down a bit.
So outside of thunderstorms,
couple of isolated tree limbs could
come down and also talking about
that risk of some power outages.
So you'll want to secure any loose objects.
And of course with the tornado
watch ongoing until 5.
O'clock have a way to get warnings,
have a way to get warnings folks and Chesley,
Chris,
Andrew Wilson and myself here are
tracking these storms as they come
in. And Melissa, you know,
with the severe weather threat,
several school districts are
now deciding to dismiss early.
So we're working right now to get that
information for you online at 11 alive.com.
Our eleven alive storm trackers are
keeping a close eye on these storms,
so make sure you stay weather
aware even when we're not on air.
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