West Alabama Thursday Briefing

Good morning, West Alabama! It is Thursday, April 10, 2025. This is the 100th day of the year with 265 days remaining.

Thursday Morning Observations: *

This has been an active Spring Primary Severe Weather Season in the United States, and we are not quite halfway through it yet.  So far this year, the number of severe weather reports recorded by the National Weather Service nationwide are running well above normal levels.

The 2024 tornado season was one of the worst on record, with 1,855 tornadoes, including over 500 in May. At this point, 2025 ranks as the most active severe-weather year since 2017 and the 4th most active for tornadoes since 2010. The Weather Channel is estimating damage costs so far are between $85and $90 million.

On average, 1,200 tornadoes happen in a year in the United States. The most confirmed tornadoes in a single year were in 2004, which had 1817 confirmed tornadoes. This was mostly boosted by a large tornado outbreak sequence in May 2004, where 509 tornadoes occurred. It also had help from a very active fall and winter tornado season.

2018 was the only year since official records began in 1950 that no tornado in the United States was rated in the violent class (F4/EF4+).

There are about 100,000 thunderstorms each year in the U.S. alone. About 10% of these reach severe levels.

This year Alabama has not been hammered like neighboring states to the west and northwest but there are still more weeks to go. And remember, severe weather, including tornadoes, can strike any month of the year and any time of the day.

The outlook this spring called for more active severe weather as both precipitation and temperatures are expected to be above normal. Therefore, an above normal storm season can continue to be expected as we dive deeper into April and May.

The storms activity is due to a combination of a large, persistent area of high pressure parked over the Southwest that could limit thunderstorms into part of the Plains and unusually warm waters in the Gulf, which will have a strong influence on severe weather.

The forecast for late this afternoon into the middle evening hours is for a risk of strong winds and large hail. The message is don't let your guard down we are just approaching the middle of a very active severe weather spring.

*Numbers and statistics used in this Morning Observation come from the National Weather Service and the Weather Channel.

(Opinions expressed in Morning Observations are those of the author and not necessarily those of the ownership, management, staff or sponsors of Townsquare Media Tuscaloosa.)

Weather:

North of Demopolis there is a Slight (2 in 5) Risk for strong to severe thunderstorms late this afternoon, into the middle evening hours.

South of Demopolis there is a Marginal (1 in 5) Risk for strong to severe thunderstorms mainly after 10:00pm.

Showers will be very scattered.

Read More: Slight Risk Across West Alabama for Strong to Severe Storms

The Forecast:

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