Tornado Watch Issued for Douglas County

Updated at 6:14 p.m. Monday

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK, has expanded its moderate-risk area for severe weather to include West Georgia, Douglasville, the Atlanta area and most of North Georgia. A severe squall line of thunderstorms is now surging into parts of North and West Alabama as well as regions to the north and south. This system has already produced damage along the path as it moved eastward.

This system will be capable of producing widespread damaging wind gusts across much of the Northern/Central Alabama into Northern Georgia. The Storm Prediction Center states that the tornado potential remains a bit more unclear, however supercell thunder storm development appears to be a possibility within the moderate risk zone.

Spring in the south can bring the best in weather, but it can also bring some of the most severe weather. Forecasters from the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma along with southeast regional forecast offices of the National Weather Service have been watching major weather computers models this past week. These computer models have been showing the development of a very strong low pressure trough moving in and bringing with it the threat of a significant severe weather outbreak for Monday afternoon leading into the night time hours.

Computer models used by the National Weather Service such as the GFS, Global Forecast Systems, model have become an integral part of modern day weather forecasting. Weather observation data from sources such as weather balloons, satellites, commercial airliners, and ground observations are fed into models like the GFS, where numerical and graphical predictions are generated at certain intervals each day. The GFS is operated by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, a governmental arm of NOAA, and is available to the public through various internet sources.

We will have a beautiful Sunday, but all eyes are keeping watch for the possibility of a major severe weather outbreak for a large portion of the US east of the Mississippi River. That includes west Georgia and the Atlanta metro area as well as all of North Georgia by later in the day on Monday. At present, the Storm Prediction Center has placed our area in a Slight Risk Area for damaging thunderstorms on their Day 2 Convective Outlook. The potential primary threats from storms could be wind gusts of 60 mph, large hail, and isolated tornados.

Keep aware of updated weather forecasts over the remainder of the weekend for what looks to be a major storm system moving in. Patch will also be keeping a watch out for you.