July 1, 2012 Storm Survey

Wind and Hail Event

On July 1st, 2012 a weak convergence boundary was in place over northern Georgia extending southwest across northeast/north central Alabama. Upper level high pressure centered north of this boundary kept showers and thunderstorms from developing for much of the afternoon across the Tennessee Valley. However, strong heating allowed max temperatures to climb to between 100 and 106 degrees Sunday afternoon.
This produced an unstable atmosphere (CAPE values between 2000 J/kg and 3000 J/kg). As this energy interacted with this weak boundary late in the afternoon into the evening hours, isolated to scattered strong to severe thunderstorms developed over portions of northern and northeastern Alabama. Below is an image of the wind and hail damage reports received from these storms.

Click here to see more details about the severe weather reports received.

Claysville Damage (Marshall County, AL)

Some of these severe storms produced up to golfball size hail and very damaging winds. The worst of this microburst wind damage occurred in the Claysville community near Guntersville. A formal storm survey was completed on this damage and found to be produced by microburst winds between 80 and 100 mph. Click here to see the public information statement concerning this damage. Below is an image of damage looked at during this survey.

Photos of the Claysville Snack Bar Damage

BEFORE	AFTER

Needed Rainfall Also Fell In Some Locations!!

Despite the severe weather, some good did come from the scattered storms on July 1st. Some locations, especially in Marshall, Dekalb and Marshall counties in northeastern Alabama received 1 to 3 inches of needed rainfall. A good portion of western Lawrence county also received 1 to 2 inches of needed rainfall.