As a strong upper level trough moved through the region on the evening of Jan. 2, a wake low formed at the rear of an associated area of showers.
Every event with a place to put it; 3 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. 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 HUN wrote it up.
As a strong upper level trough moved through the region on the evening of Jan. 2, a wake low formed at the rear of an associated area of showers. Gusty winds of approx. 35 to 45 mph resulted during the mid evening hours in north Alabama. The winds knocked down trees and power lines in at least three counties.
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 Huntsville, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jan 2, 5:23 PM CST, 1 hour 52 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Huntsville AL 523 PM CST Mon Jan 2 2017 .UPDATE... For 00Z TAFS. && .NEAR TERM...(Tonight) Issued at 240 PM CST Mon Jan 2 2017 19z surface analysis shows a warm front, enhanced greatly by the MCS over AL into southern MS, situated from near Columbus GA west thru Montgomery AL to just south of Jackson and Vicksburg MS. Visible imagery indicated a narrow corridor of heating in northeast MS into northwest AL, but this airmass remains rather stable for surface based parcels. Elevated CAPE is helping to regenerate showers ahead of the main MCS in northern MS. The latest HRRR suggests that the MCS/QLCS along the MS River will arrive along the western AL border around 00Z. The warm front to our south may lift northward into central AL this evening, but may not reach north AL at this point. This boundary will likely be the focus and delineate the greatest severe risk this evening in the warm sector to our south as the MCS arrives. Further north, the upper trough axis over the ArkLaTex will eject negatively tilted tonight producing strong UVV across the mid south and TN valley. This could overcome the lack of stronger instability and produce a few strong to severe thunderstorms. 0-6km bulk shear values of 40-50kt are supportive of this, although the values are stronger across central and southern AL. Low level helicity values will increase due to stronger veering as the low advances closer, so will not totally rule out an isolated tornado threat, but this appears to be a very low threat at this time due to limited low level CAPE. The surface low track will move across northeast just east of Memphis with an occluded front moving across north AL and southern TN. Showers may linger overnight behind the MCS. Some patchy fog may develop around daybreak on Wednesday, but despite rainfall, more widespread fog is not anticipated since winds will remain around 5 mph. .SHORT TERM...(Tuesday through Wednesday) Issued at 211 PM CST Mon Jan 2 2017 Isolated or widely scattered showers will continue to linger through much of Tuesday in northern Alabama. Some patchy fog could linger through approximately 9 AM before lifting. Some weaker cold air advection will push into areas north of the Tennessee River. However, further south, neutral advection will be occurring. Thus slightly cooler conditions are expected further north (highs around 60), while lower to mid 60s should still be attainable further south. Quite a few mid to high clouds should remain in place through much of the day. However, thinner high clouds late in the afternoon may help warm highs. More substantial cold air advection occurs on Tuesday night into Friday, behind a weak (but dry) cold front moving south through northern Alabama. This front looks to have just enough moisture available to squeeze out some isolated showers. Temperatures due to cold air advection will be cooler though, dropping into the upper 30s to mid 40s in the morning. These rise into the lower to mid 40s during the day on Wednesday. Due to weak lift seen with no ice nucleation seen aloft in forecast soundings, only expect very light rain at best. Sleet or snow given warm surface temperatures does not seem likely. Even drier and colder temperatures will advect in via northerly flow as a surface high pushes from the Upper Midwest into the Mississippi Valley Wednesday night. .LONG TERM...(Wednesday night through Sunday) Issued at 211 PM CST Mon Jan 2 2017 This continues into Thursday. Lows in the 20s and highs in the upper 30s to 40s look like the rule through Friday. Models bring another stronger front into the Tennessee Valley Thursday night into Friday, before exiting Friday evening. They differ on whether this front will be able to squeeze out some very light precipitation during this time. If it does, some light snow showers will be possible. Maybe just flurries, but some light snow cannot be ruled out. Thus kept/added isolated light snow showers to the forecast during this period. At this point it looks like little to no accumulation (only a few hundreths at best). GFS40 diverges greatly from other synoptic models, as we go into Friday evening. It develops a very strong shortwave over Texas and moves east via zonal flow into northern Alabama on Saturday. The other models do not develop this feature upstream and keep things dry. Since most models are converging on the dry solution, trending forecast toward ECMWF starting Friday evening. && .AVIATION...(For the 00Z TAFS through 00Z Tuesday evening) Issued at 523 PM CST Mon Jan 2 2017 A band of showers with embedded thunderstorms is moving NE into the TN Valley this evening. This should arrive into KMSL between 23Z-00Z and into KHSV between 00Z-01Z. Brief gusts to 30 mph are possible with any of the storms in addition to heavy rain. CIGS and VIS should drop to IFR and then briefly down to LIFR in the heaviest showers. A few amendments may be needed if conditions deviate from what is currently in the TAFs. This line quickly moves through the area and we should be left with IFR CIGS behind the line. These are expected to continue through the morning hours and a brief shower/drizzle is possible tonight as the upper level system moves through. Vsbys and Cigs improve to MVFR during the day Tuesday. && .HUN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... AL...NONE. TN...NONE. && NEAR TERM...17 SHORT TERM...KTW LONG TERM...KTW AVIATION...Stumpf For more information please visit our website at weather.gov/huntsville.
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL 707 PM CST MON JAN 2 2017 ALZ001>010-016-TNZ076-096-097-031130- LAUDERDALE-COLBERT-FRANKLIN AL-LAWRENCE-LIMESTONE-MADISON-MORGAN- MARSHALL-JACKSON-DE KALB-CULLMAN-MOORE-LINCOLN-FRANKLIN TN- 707 PM CST MON JAN 2 2017 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTH ALABAMA AND PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN MIDDLE TENNESSEE. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT... A FEW THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE INTO THE EVENING HOURS...AHEAD OF A COLD FRONT APPROACHING FROM THE WEST. BRIEF WIND GUSTS TO 50 MPH WILL BE THE MAIN WEATHER THREATS WITH THE STRONGER STORMS. A THREAT FOR THUNDERSTORMS WILL DIMINISH FROM WEST TO EAST LATER THIS EVENING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY... THE PROBABILITY FOR WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW. THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE OF LIGHT SNOW FRIDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHT. CONFIDENCE IS LOW AT THIS TIME AND NO ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED. .SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT... ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL IS NOT EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 strong wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Tree downed near intersection of al17 and cr30.
Strong wind gusts from a wake low have knocked out power across portions of DeKalb Co. and a tree has fallen on a home in Ft. Payne.
Power lines down across Boaz.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alabama in 2017Every state in 2017This day in weather historyWarnings in Alabama, January 2017
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: 676842, 676835, 676844.