West Alabama Friday Briefing

It is Friday March 15, 2024.

The day's weather started out fast with a tornado warning in Lamar County and continued to rock 'n roll as a squall line moved through West Alabama bringing torrential rainfall, scattered flash flooding, gusty winds and small hail.

Scattered damage was reported across North Alabama but no injuries. There were a number of power outages.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is in effect until noon today for counties south of Tuscaloosa and Pickens with a Slight (2 in 5) Risk for strong to severe thunderstorms south of the I20/59 corridor and a Marginal (1 in 5) Risk north of that line through 5:00 this afternoon.

The main threats today include damaging wind gusts up to 60 mph and quarter size hail. Isolated flooding could also occur due to locally heavy rainfall, mainly in urban and other poor drainage areas.

Tomorrow should be relatively dry before rain returns on Sunday. Then the first of next week winter makes a brief return with near freezing temperatures and possibly a late frost.

The Forecast:

Today

Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 1pm, then showers and thunderstorms likely after 1pm. Patchy fog between 10am and noon. High near 73. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southeast in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.

Tonight

A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am. Patchy fog after 3am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 58. West wind around 5 mph becoming northwest after midnight. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Saturday

Mostly cloudy, with a high near 72. North wind around 5 mph.

Saturday Night

A 20 percent chance of showers after 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 54. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

Sunday

A 50 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 66. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph.

Sunday Night

Partly cloudy, with a low around 43.

Monday

Sunny, with a high near 59.

Monday Night

Areas of frost after 4am. Otherwise, clear, with a low around 32.

Tuesday

Widespread frost before 8am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 61.

Tuesday Night

Partly cloudy, with a low around 41.

Mid Nest Week

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Topping the News:

There is good news for emergency medical care in Pickens County. After months of inadequate responses, the Pickens County Commission has allocated $17,000 per month to fully staff an ambulance 24/7.

The funding begins April 1st and will be re-evaluated at some time in the future. "We've been working behind the scenes for a good while on this, we know it's been a problem, the ambulance response," District 3 Pickens County Commissioner Drew Elmore told news partner ABC 3340.

Six people are needed to fully staff an ambulance unit around the clock, just four people currently work for the ambulance service.

Slow response times due to lack of staffing has been blamed by some for at least one unnecessary death.

A Gordo woman killed in a Wednesday traffic crash on U.S. 82 West in Pickens County has been identified. 63-year-old Barbara A. McDaniel died in a head-on collision. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

The driver of the other vehicle survived and was airlifted to UAB Medical Center. There has been no word on their condition.

Flags are flying at half-staff in Tuscaloosa through the weekend for former Tuscaloosa High and University of Alabama Quarterback, winning high school coach and Tuscaloosa City Councilman Clell Hobson, Sr. He died Thursday morning at the age of 93.

Hobson played for Coach Harld "Red" Drew in the 1950s culminating an outstanding career in a 61-6 beatdown of Syracuse in the Orange Bowl his senior season.

When he retired Hobson remained active serving as principal at Davis-Emerson Middle School in Cottondale. He then became an associate dean at Shelton State Community College,

Always interested in the success of his hometown, Clell served one term on the Tuscaloosa City Council from 1997-2001.

A celebration of life will be held on March 29 at Memory Chapel in Tuscaloosa. Exact timing and schedule have not yet been released.

More than 500 first responders participated in a full-scale active school shooter training exercise in Greensboro last night. Hale County Emergency Management Agency spent four months organizing the drill involving 61 agencies from 16 counties in West and Central Alabama.

Greensboro Elementary School was the site of the exercise which was conducted after hours to make sure the community was not alarmed by flashing lights and a large first responder presence.

There have been 25 school shootings in Alabama since 2008 making in imperative that first responders actually practice their response plans according to Hale County EMA Director Russell Weeden.

Traffic will pick back up around the Tuscaloosa area Monday when University of Alabama students return to town from spring break.

Topping Sports News:

The Crimson Tide Men's Basketball Team now knows who they will be playing tonight in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville. It will be a what baseball calls the "rubber game" between the Tide and Gators which split the regular season games.

Florida is a 3.5-point favorite to beat Bama, who they took to OT in Tuscaloosa before losing and blew out in Gainesville a couple of weeks ago.

The Tide is expected to be a full-strength for the first time in weeks for the game.

Tipoff is 8:30pm on Tide 100.9 and 95.3 The Bear and the SEC Network.

Weather permitting, Alabama baseball will officially open Southeastern Conference play this weekend as the 12^th-ranked Crimson Tide hosts the sixth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers at "The Joe" on campus. The opener tonight is set for a 6 p.m. first pitch followed by a 7 p.m. start on Saturday and a 1 p.m. open in the series finale.

Tide Softball is on the road this weekend at Georgia in Athens. No. 14 Alabama (21-3, 1-2 SEC) faces its second conference foe of the season at fifth-ranked Georgia (21-3, 0-0 SEC) tonight, Saturday and Sunday.

On3.com is reporting that emails obtained through an open records request reveal that Texas A&M wanted the SEC to punish Nick Saban for his ‘bought’ recruits comment about the Aggies program under then Head Football Coach Jimbo Fisher.

The initial email called Saban’s comment “false, beneath the dignity of the SEC, and corrosive to the fabric of sportsmanship in college football.” His comments were later proven mostly correct.

Fisher, who is a Saban disciple, is no longer the coach in College Station.

Have a great SEC Basketball Tournament weekend and ROLL TIDE!!