Alabama slowly coming out of tornado season
The season winds down as May moves along
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - We are officially heading into the time of year when Alabama transitions from tornado season to pop-up thunderstorm season. This happens every year in May as summer weather takes over.
There’s no exact date that we can say is the official “end” of tornado season. The midway point in May is about as good as it gets when it comes to defining the end to Alabama’s tornado season.
Tornadoes can still happen during the second half of May, and during the summer months of June, July, August, and September. It’s just they are much less likely to happen because of the lack of ingredients needed for tornadoes during those months.
The transition into the brutally hot and humid months comes with its own type of hazard: the occasional severe thunderstorm.
Pop-up downpours and thunderstorms happen often between Memorial Day and Labor Day. That’s just Alabama for you. Sometimes those storms can become strong to even severe and be capable of producing damaging wind gusts and hail.
There aren’t always severe thunderstorms during the summer, but when there are they can certainly produce damage. So while the tornado threat is very low over the next handful of months, the risk for concerning weather is still there.
If a Severe Thunderstorm Warning is issued for your location this summer it’s important to still treat it as a serious matter. Just as you would a Tornado Warning in all honesty.
That’s because damaging severe thunderstorm wind gusts and large hail are both serious. If a warning for a severe thunderstorm is issued, it will fall in one of the three categories listed above -- a tiered system that is still pretty new to us.
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