West Alabama Thursday Briefing

It is Thursday March 14, 2024.

The threats from tomorrow's strong to severe thunderstorms are trending downward. Rainfall amounts are lessening and there is no tornado threat. However, the National Weather Service in Birmingham continues a Moderate (1 in 5) Risk for all of West Alabama from 5:00am until 5:00pm.

A Mesoscale Convective System will move across North Alabama during the morning hours reaching the I20 corridor by noon. A couple of damaging wind gusts and very heavy rainfall are expected.

Additional scattered thunderstorms are forecast to develop statewide during the afternoon and end before midnight. A couple of damaging wind gusts and very heavy rainfall at times is possible.

Contrary to early week forecasts, Saturday now looks to be rain free but will return Sunday. Overall rainfall totals look to amount to .05 to as much as 2 inches in some spots.

The Forecast:

Today

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. South wind 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10pm, then a slight chance of showers between 10pm and 1am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 64. South wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Friday

Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 73. South wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southeast in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible.

Friday Night

Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 1am, then a slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 57. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Saturday

Partly sunny, with a high near 73. North wind around 5 mph.

Saturday Night

A 20 percent chance of showers after 1am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 52.

Sunday

A 30 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 69.

Sunday Night

Mostly cloudy, with a low around 45.

Next Week:

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Topping the News:

Alabama was attacked Tuesday - by hackers. They flooded State of Alabama and some municipal websites with phony traffic in an apparent attempt to knock them offline — a common attack method known as distributed denial of service (DDoS).

In a press release from Gov. Ivey's office there was no breach of government networks or data stolen in the cyberattack.

Investigators believe the attack came from a foreign country.

Enterprise State Representative Barry Moore was the loan member of the Alabama congressional delegation to vote against legislation that would ban social media site Tik-Tok if its Chinese owners do not sell it.

Moore claims the bill is a violation of free speech rights while proponents are concerned that the website has too many contacts with the Chinese military and is a national security threat to the United States.

West Alabama Democrat Congress members Democrat Terri Sewell and Republican Robert Aderholdt voted for the measure. Sewell issued a statement saying, “To be clear, this bill does not ban TikTok outright. All TikTok has to do to remain operational in the United States is divest from its Chinese-owned parent company. It is my hope that TikTok will do the right thing so that everyday Americans and small businesses can continue to use and enjoy this app.”

Alabama lawmakers could join Florida in passing so called "don't say gay" legislation. Rainbow City Republican Rep. Mack Butler wants to prohibit discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in K-12 classrooms in Alabama.

Butler has said the bill is needed “purify the schools.”

Since she delivered a dramatic Republican rebuttal to President Biden's highly partisan State of the Union Address, Alabama Senator Katie Britt has been mocked by celebrities, late night talk show hosts, Saturday Night Live and Democrats. They claim she was overly dramatic and was not factual.

“They don’t want to bring light and help the women who are actually being trafficked,” Britt told Texas Senator Ted Cruz on his podcast "Verdict" Wednesday. “The liberal media isn’t interested in the truth. They’re interested in burying the truth about Joe Biden and his border crisis. They have an agenda.”

Britt told Cruz liberals are frightened by a conservative female mom who talked about kitchen table issues.

A two-car crash on U-S 82 in Pickens County took a life yesterday afternoon. ALEA Troopers have yet to identify the victim. The crash blocked all lanes of the highway for two and a half hours. More information is expected later today.

We don't know yet if any West Alabama stores will be involved but Dollar Tree has announced it is closing 1,000 stores across the country. The Virginia based retail chain operates more than 16,400 stores, about half Dollar General and half Family Dollar.

It has been three months since there has been a winner in the Powerball Lottery. The total jackpot is now $600 million with no winning number in last night's drawing.

Expect a lot of cars with Alabama license plates headed across the state line to Mississippi to purchase lottery tickets in hopes of winning the pot of gold the night before St. Patrick's Day.

Topping Sports News:

Alabama Softball got great pitching, timely hitting and near flawless defense to beat Florida State 4-1 in Tallahassee last night. It was Alabama's first win at the Atlantic Coast Conference school.

The Tide opens the SEC season with three games this weekend at Georgia.

Former Alabama Head Football Coach Nick Saban is being blasted by some on social media for telling a congressional roundtable on the future of college athletics that the current pay-for-play, unregulated model cannot be sustained.

Some claim Saban retired because modern college athletic [assed him by. But don't tell his former players and Old Miss Coach Lane Kiffin that. Kiffin and former Tide players have risen to his defense posting that he cares about players now and about their future, building boys into men. Saban's defenders point out that life cannot be all about money.

Alabama Basketball Coach Nate Oats is hoping his team will be healthy and at full strength when they play Friday night in the Southeastern Conference Quarterfinals in Nashville.

Oats now has a better idea on who his team will play. The Tide will matchup against the winner of today's Georgia and Florida game at 8:30 tomorrow night on 100.9 The Tide and 95.3 The Bear.

Have a thrilling Thursday!!