Several rounds of moderate to heavy rainfall tracked across central Alabama along a quasi-stationary cold front.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS BMX wrote it up.
Several rounds of moderate to heavy rainfall tracked across central Alabama along a quasi-stationary cold front.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Birmingham, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 27, 9:18 PM CST, 42 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 918 PM CST SAT DEC 27 2014 .UPDATE... EVENING UPDATE. && .DISCUSSION... HAVE BEEN WATCHING THE WIDESPREAD RAIN ON THE RADAR TONIGHT. GROUND TRUTH HAS DONE JUST THAT...KEEP US GROUNDED AS THE RADAR VALUES FROM BOTH KBMX AND KMXX HAVE BEEN VASTLY OVERESTIMATING THE PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS WITH BOTH THE LEGACY AND DUAL POL ESTIMATES. ASOS REPORTS HAVE BEEN A USEFUL FRIEND TONIGHT. SO ALTHOUGH STEADY AND MODERATE AT TIMES...RAINFALL AMOUNTS HAVE STAYED MANAGEABLE. WITH THAT SAID...WE ARE NOWHERE NEAR BEING DONE YET...SO WATCH IS STILL IN EFFECT. AS FAR AS THE FORECAST...HAVE UPPED THE THUNDER IN THE WEST FROM SLIGHT CHANCE TO CHANCE. ALREADY HAVE CATEGORICAL RAIN CHANCES. WITH HIGHER TEMPS/DEW POINTS IN MISSISSIPPI...HAVE SEEN A LITTLE MORE INSTABILITY FOR THUNDER. SOME OF THIS WARMER/MOISTER AIR IS TRYING TO FILTER INTO THE WEST PART OF ALABAMA WITH MORE TSRA EXPECTED. NOT EXPECTING SEVERE BUT JUST SOME OCCASIONAL THUNDER. AS FOR TEMPERATURES...WE MAY HAVE ALREADY SEEN OUR LOWS OR MAYBE A DEGREE/TWO MORE AT BEST. WILL MOST LIKELY STAY STEADY/SLOWLY RISE OVERNIGHT AS THE BEFORE MENTIONED AIR MASS INFILTRATES...WITH OVERCAST/RAINY CONDITIONS. THERE IS NOT MUCH ROOM FOR COOLING TONIGHT. SO HAVE TWEAKED TEMPERATURES BASED ON CURRENT TRENDS AND EXPECTED POSSIBLES RISES OVERNIGHT. 08/MK && .AVIATION... 00Z TAF DISCUSSION. CIGS ARE ALREADY ON THEIR WAY DOWN ACROSS THE W/SW...AND EXPECT THIS TREND TO CONTINUE THRU THE EVENING HOURS. BASED ON LATEST TRENDS TO OUR WEST...CIGS SHOULD LOWER TO IFR FROM SW TO NE THRU ROUGHLY 04Z. SOME LIFR CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE BUT CONFIDENCE IS JUST NOT HIGH ENOUGH TO INCLUDE ATTM. RAIN WILL CONTINUE AREA WIDE THRU THE NIGHT...WITH A FEW EMBEDDED THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE MAINLY NEAR MGM/TOI. WINDS WILL GENERALLY BE OUT OF THE SE AROUND 4-7 KTS THRU THE FIRST HALF OF THE PERIOD. A COLD FRONT WILL ENTER AND CROSS CENTRAL ALABAMA ON SUNDAY...BUT DON'T LOOK FOR ANY SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS. POST FRONTAL STRATUS AND LIGHT RAIN WILL CONTINUE WITH IFR CIGS PERSISTING FOR MUCH OF THE DAY. WINDS WILL GRADUALLY SHIFT TO THE W THEN NW BEHIND THE FRONT. 19 && .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 318 PM CST SAT DEC 27 2014/ SHORT TERM...TONIGHT THROUGH MONDAY. THE SECOND BATCH OF SHOWERS ARE MOVING ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL ALABAMA THIS AFTERNOON. THIS AREA OF HEAVIER RAINFALL HAS MOVED IN FARTHER SOUTHWARD THAN EXPECTED. RAINFALL RATES ARE PROBABLY IN THE 0.25-0.50 INCH PER HOUR RANGE. RADAR RATES WERE IN THE 0.50-1.0 INCH RANGE OVER GREENVILLE ALABAMA...BUT THE SURFACE OBSERVATION ONLY REPORTED 0.25 INCHES BETWEEN 1PM AND 2PM. THE AIR MASS IS STILL RELATIVELY DRY BELOW 3000 FEET AND THE LOWEST RADAR BEAM HEIGHT IS PROBABLY NOT SAMPLING THE DRY LAYER. THE HIGHEST RAINFALL TOTALS THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT HAVE ALSO SHIFTED SOUTHWARD...WITH THE MAXIMUM AXIS JUST SOUTH OF I-20...WITH TOTALS OF 3-3.5 INCHES. THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH HAS BEEN EXTENDED EASTWARD AND NOW INCLUDES ALL THE COUNTIES ALONG AND NORTH OF I-85. THE HEAVIEST RAINFALL WILL LIKELY OCCUR TONIGHT AS THE BEST FORCING MOVES ACROSS THE AREA AHEAD OF THE SURFACE COLD FRONT. THE LATEST SOUNDING FROM SLIDELL LOUISIANA REPORTED A PRECIPITABLE WATER VALUES NEAR 2 INCHES AT 18 UTC TODAY. THIS AIR MASS WILL ADVECT NORTHEAST OVERNIGHT AND ENHANCE THE HEAVY RAINFALL POTENTIAL. THERE WILL LIKELY BE A BREAK IN THE HEAVIER RAINFALL ON SUNDAY AS THE FIRST UPPER IMPULSE MOVES EAST OF THE AREA. THE MODELS ARE SHOWING ANOTHER IMPULSE MOVING THROUGH THE AREA SUNDAY NIGHT...AND RAINFALL WILL INCREASE IN INTENSITY ONCE AGAIN...BUT NOT AS HEAVY AS SATURDAY NIGHT. THE RAIN WILL BEGIN TO LIFT OUT OF THE AREA MONDAY MORNING...WITH THE RAIN OUT OF EAST ALABAMA BY EARLY MONDAY AFTERNOON. WILL NEED TO MONITOR THE SOUTHEAST AREAS SUNDAY AFTERNOON AS TEMPERATURES ARE FORECAST TO CLIMB INTO THE MIDDLE 70S WITH DEW POINTS IN THE LOWER TO MIDDLE 60S. IF THE AREA CAN REMAIN RAIN FREE DURING THE MORNING HOURS...THERE COULD BE ENOUGH INSTABILITY FOR SOME STRONGER STORMS. 58/ROSE LONG TERM...TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY. A 1050MB SURFACE HIGH OVER THE PLAINS STATES WILL BUILD SOUTHWARD INTO THE CENTRAL GULF COAST REGION TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. THIS WILL BRING MUCH COLDER AIR INTO CENTRAL ALABAMA...BUT THE REALLY COLD OR ARCTIC AIR WILL STAY TO THE NORTH OF ALABAMA AS WE REMAIN IN AN ACTIVE UPPER LEVEL SOUTHERN STREAM FLOW. A FAIRLY POTENT SOUTHWEST STATES STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE INTO THE SOUTHERN PLAINS STATES THURSDAY NIGHT OR FRIDAY AND THE AIR MASS WILL WARM UP QUICKLY ACROSS ALABAMA AS THE SURFACE FLOW BECOMES SOUTHEAST. THIS SYSTEM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE SOME STRONGER STORMS AND HEAVY RAINFALL IN THE FRIDAY TO SATURDAY TIME FRAME...AND WILL MONITOR FOR SOME MODEL RUN TO RUN CONSISTENCY BEFORE MENTIONING ANY SEVERE STORMS. 58/ROSE && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... GADSDEN 51 61 45 56 36 / 100 100 80 20 10 ANNISTON 52 65 48 60 40 / 100 100 80 20 10 BIRMINGHAM 52 62 46 57 38 / 100 100 80 10 10 TUSCALOOSA 53 62 45 56 36 / 100 100 80 10 10 CALERA 52 65 47 58 40 / 100 100 80 20 10 AUBURN 48 68 54 63 44 / 100 70 70 30 10 MONTGOMERY 52 72 52 64 43 / 100 80 70 20 10 TROY 50 73 55 65 43 / 100 60 70 30 10 && .BMX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... FLASH FLOOD WATCH THROUGH LATE SUNDAY NIGHT FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES: AUTAUGA...BIBB...BLOUNT...CALHOUN...CHAMBERS... CHEROKEE...CHILTON...CLAY...CLEBURNE...COOSA...DALLAS...ELMORE... ETOWAH...FAYETTE...GREENE...HALE...JEFFERSON...LAMAR...LEE... LOWNDES...MACON...MARENGO...MARION...MONTGOMERY...PERRY... PICKENS...RANDOLPH...SHELBY...ST. CLAIR...SUMTER...TALLADEGA... TALLAPOOSA...TUSCALOOSA...WALKER...WINSTON. && 08/19/58
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 607 PM CST SAT DEC 27 2014 ALZ011>015-017>050-290015- MARION-LAMAR-FAYETTE-WINSTON-WALKER-BLOUNT-ETOWAH-CALHOUN-CHEROKEE- CLEBURNE-PICKENS-TUSCALOOSA-JEFFERSON-SHELBY-ST. CLAIR-TALLADEGA- CLAY-RANDOLPH-SUMTER-GREENE-HALE-PERRY-BIBB-CHILTON-COOSA-TALLAPOOSA- CHAMBERS-MARENGO-DALLAS-AUTAUGA-LOWNDES-ELMORE-MONTGOMERY-MACON- BULLOCK-LEE-RUSSELL-PIKE-BARBOUR- 607 PM CST SAT DEC 27 2014 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE COUNTIES SERVED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN BIRMINGHAM. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT. RAIN WILL SPREAD SOUTHWEST TO NORTHEAST ACROSS MUCH OF CENTRAL ALABAMA TONIGHT AND GRADUALLY INCREASE IN INTENSITY. RAINFALL AMOUNTS AROUND 2 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE THROUGH TONIGHT...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. THESE RAIN AMOUNTS MAY PRODUCE SOME FLOODING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. ADDITIONAL RAIN ON SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT MAY CONTINUE THE THREAT OF FLOODING. AMOUNTS AROUND 1 INCH ARE POSSIBLE THIS PERIOD WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. MINOR RIVER FLOODING WILL BECOME POSSIBLE WITH THESE RAIN AMOUNTS...ESPECIALLY BASINS IN WESTERN ALABAMA. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT IS NOT EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 04:02 UTC.
3 flash flood, 1 heavy rain. Local standard time, as filed.
Several roads in the downtown area of Birmingham were covered in water due to poor drainage.
Numerous roads in the Birmingham metro area have flooded and barricaded by police.
County Road 17 has flooded near the intersections of County Roads 266 and 270.
County road 87 near the intersection of Highway 31 has become impassable due to water covering the roadway.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alabama in 2014Every state in 2014This day in weather historyWarnings in Alabama, December 2014
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 553601, 553602, 553609, 553610.