As a low pressure lifted northeast through the mid South and the tip of northwest Alabama into middle Tennessee, a band of thunderstorms along a pre-frontal trough attached to the low pushed northeast through north Alabama during the midday into the afternoon hours. One of the thunderstorms in northwest Alabama produced unusually shaped hail stones, with elongated knobs and spikes.
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 HUN wrote it up.
As a low pressure lifted northeast through the mid South and the tip of northwest Alabama into middle Tennessee, a band of thunderstorms along a pre-frontal trough attached to the low pushed northeast through north Alabama during the midday into the afternoon hours. One of the thunderstorms in northwest Alabama produced unusually shaped hail stones, with elongated knobs and spikes. This yielded large diameter hail stones in a lengthwise fashion as a opposed to cylindrical hail stones.
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 Feb 12, 11:53 AM CST, 17 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Huntsville AL 1153 AM CST Mon Feb 12 2024 ...New AVIATION... .NEAR TERM... (Rest of Today) Issued at 1015 AM CST Mon Feb 12 2024 A deepening shortwave trough will shift east-northeastward from eastern OK into western portions of TN Valley by late this afternoon, with mid-level SW flow predicted to increase to 75-85 knots as impressive synoptic scale forcing for ascent (highlighted by 12-hr 500-mb height falls of 150-200m) spreads across the region from the west. At the surface, a developing area of low pressure (currently across east-central MS/west-central AL) will deepen as it crosses NW AL early this afternoon and tracks into the Upper Cumberland Plateau region of eastern TN by 0Z. Although the low-level mass response to these processes will be rather impressive, widespread low stratus clouds and a combination of mist/light fog and drizzle to the north of a warm front will inhibit the advection of a warmer and more unstable airmass into the region, even as the southerly low-level jet strengthens to 25-35 knots over the next couple of hours. What appears to be the most likely scenario is that pockets of light-occasionally moderate rain (and perhaps a few elevated storms) will spread northeastward into the region between the present time and 18Z. As the deepening surface low begins to depart to the northeast, a trailing/sharpening trough will sweep eastward between 19-23Z, focusing the development of a narrow line of heavier showers and perhaps a thunderstorm or two. Although the storms should remain slightly elevated, occasional strong wind gusts of 30-40 MPH may occur due to the magnitude of flow aloft. Aside from this risk for gusty winds, lightning and locally heavy rainfall will also be concerns. Low-level winds will veer sharply to WSW in the wake of the surface trough and may increase to 20-25 MPH (with gusts of 30-35 MPH) but should remain below Wind Advisory criteria. && .SHORT TERM... (Tonight through Wednesday night) Issued at 334 AM CST Mon Feb 12 2024 Expect showers and storms to come to an end later this evening as the cold front continues to push east of the area, and will mention the chance for a brief period of rain/snow mix or light flurries as colder air pushes into the Tennessee Valley. Given a relatively shallow layer of wraparound moisture, do not expect to see much in the way of accumulations except for maybe a dusting on grassy areas and elevated surfaces across northern portions of Lincoln, Moore, and Franklin (TN) counties. Given the well above normal temperatures over the past several days, also do not expect any travel issues overnight. Overnight lows will fall into the low to mid 30s With clouds slowly clearing from west to east during the early morning hours. Breezy west/northwesterly flow will also follow behind the frontal boundary, and wind gusts could reach 20-30mph at times overnight, especially over the higher terrain portions of northeast AL. There are no current plans to issue a Wind Advisory, but one may be needed if gradient winds trend more intense. By Tuesday morning, drier and much more pleasant weather will follow as the sun returns and temperatures fall back near or just above seasonal norms. Afternoon highs will reach the low to mid 50s on Tuesday before falling back down into the lower 30s Tuesday night. High pressure will center near the TN Valley on Wednesday, and warmer H85 flow will allow highs to climb back into the upper 50s/lower 60s under sunny skies. This will begin a warming trend that will continue through much of the work week. && .LONG TERM... (Thursday through Sunday) Issued at 334 AM CST Mon Feb 12 2024 Zonal flow aloft continues into Thursday, as the center of a weakening surface high shifts southeastward to the Georgia/Carolina coast. Southwesterly surface and low level flow becomes established ahead of a developing frontal boundary extending SW into northern Texas from a parent low moving into the western Great Lakes region on Thursday as well. Not expecting a lot of cloud cover, but some scattered high clouds could develop in through the day. Enough sunshine and 925 mb temperatures warming to around 10 degrees Celsius should allow high temperatures to make it into the 60 to 65 degree range primarily. WSW winds should be around 10 mph with some gusts up to 20 mph possible. This front quickly pushes through and southeast of the area Thursday night before stalling somewhere between southern Alabama and north central Alabama. Some colder and drier air will work its way south behind the front. Lows should drop into the upper 30s to lower 40s Thursday night into Saturday morning. However, Friday into Friday night is where models diverge. Mainly two camps with this timeframe. One is more similar to the ECMWF, which drive the front into southern Alabama and more quickly moves a very strong and cold area of high pressure southward from western Canada. This solution keeps us much drier next weekend. The other general solution is similar to the GFS20 solution. However, this scenario hangs the front up over central or northern Alabama and develops a weak area of low pressure further north of Oklahoma on the western edge of this front. This solution is a wetter solution (not heavy rainfall but persistent light rain/drizzle type of scenario) over the weekend. For now, going with a blend of the two, which the NBM seems like it is trying to do. The end result with the forecast will be the inclusion of isolated to scattered (low chances) of precipitation developing over northern Alabama and southern middle Tennessee Friday evening. Highs should be able to reach the upper 50s to lower 60s on Friday. This light rain looks like it could become scattered in nature (30-40 PoP) late Friday night into Saturday morning before pushing southeast of the area. Again there is more uncertainty with temperatures and precipitation during the Friday night into Saturday period due to the differences in the evolution of the front during this period. Regardless, cold air will start to push into the either late Friday night or early Saturday morning. At this time, stayed closer to the quicker solution mirroring the ECMWF, which really drops temperatures between midnight and 6 AM on Saturday (about 6-12 hours sooner than other solution). Temperatures overnight should drop as a result into the mid 30s to around 40 degrees. Strong cold air advection continues into Saturday and cloud cover will also likely aid in keeping temperatures on the low side. Therefore kept highs a tad cooler than guidance, only reaching the lower to mid 40s primarily in the afternoon. Saturday night looks cold, but again just how cold is fairly divergent in model guidance. However, given the source region of the surface high building into the area during this period (which originated in west central Canada), believe the colder solution of GFS might be closer with this aspect of the extended forecast. Thus, kept a trend of going slightly lower than guidance dropping lows into the mid to upper 20s across the area Saturday night into Sunday morning. Winds in either solution stay up Saturday night, so don't want to go too far below guidance for now. Models warm up this airmass fairly quickly Sunday into early next week. Not overly impressed that this isn't a bit too quick of a change given the source region of that surface high on Sunday. However, kept close to guidance for now with high temperatures reaching the upper 40s to lower 50s. Abundant sunshine will help to warm things up, but not sure if this may be a bit too warm. Models keep winds between 5 and 10 mph Sunday night. This may keep temperatures from dropping to near dewpoints values and in the lower 30s. There is some skepticism that that will occur looking at the location of the surface high over the area (though weakening) Sunday night in guidance. This may need to be lowered in future updates. Southwesterly low level flow does return though by Monday afternoon into Tuesday. However, highs will still be cool climbing into the lower to mid 50s even with abundant sunshine. && .AVIATION... (18Z TAFS) Issued at 1153 AM CST Mon Feb 12 2024 A combination of light-occasionally moderate rain (and perhaps a few embedded TSRA), DZ and BR will continue at the terminals (along with IFR cigs/MVFR vsby) for the next couple of hours, as the region will remain located north of a warm front. By early aftn, a narrow band of heavier/convective SHRA and TSRA will sweep eastward along a sfc trough, with this feature likely to reach MSL arnd 19Z and HSV arnd 21Z. Lgt ESE sfc winds will veer sharply to WSW (and eventually WNW) in the wake of the trough and increase to 14G24 knots, with improvements to vsby expected along with cigs rising into the MVFR range. A separate region of lgt RA (perhaps mixed with a few snow flurries) associated with an upper- lvl trough will push eastward across the TN Valley late this aftn and this evening, warranting TEMPO groups that may need to be extended beyond the cutoff times in the current TAFs. Rapid clearing and a return to VFR conds is expected by 7Z/MSL and 8Z/HSV. && .HUN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... AL...None. TN...None. && NEAR TERM...70/DD SHORT TERM...25 LONG TERM...KTW AVIATION...70/DD
The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 18:10 UTC.
4 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Hail with a diameter of quarters and ping pong balls was reported in Phil Campbell. Time estimated by radar.
Hail with a diameter of quarters and golf balls was reported in Spruce Pine. Time estimated by radar.
An unusually shaped hail stone fell in Russellville and was photographed and reported via social media. This stone consisted of multiple spikes and a lengthwise diameter of approximately 4 inches based upon comparison of a quarter within the photograph. Several other reports of hail stones were received with a diameter of 1 to 2 inches, also consisting of interesting conglomerations, spikes and knobs. Time estimated by radar.
Hail with a diameter of quarters was reported in Vinemont. Time estimated by radar.
The roof was lifted and displaced on a building, which also knocked out the top portion of the brick wall on one side of the building. A tin roof was also taken off of a nearby garage building. This occurred in Lakeview at the intersection of Highway 75 and CR 434. The photo of the damage was provided via social media and compared to previous Google Maps street view photos. Time estimated by radar.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alabama in 2024Every state in 2024This day in weather historyWarnings in Alabama, February 2024
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: 1162448, 1162449, 1162453, 1162450, 1162451.