Thunderstorm Wind in Clay County, Alabama

Lineville city police reported a fatality when a large tree fell on a moving vehicle. The vehicle was traveling on Martha Street.

A rare Southeast States derecho swept southward through the entire state of Alabama during the afternoon and evening hours of June 28th. This particular event featured a complex of thunderstorms that resulted in wind damage along a track nearly 400 miles long, originating in Central Tennessee and ending along the Gulf Coast. The southward movement of these storms was driven by clockwise flow around a ridge of high pressure centered over the Central United States. In Central Alabama, the storms moved through during peak daytime heating with a very unstable air mass in place. CAPE values of 4,000-5,000 J/kg were common while bulk wind shear values were low due to the proximity of the upper ridge. Steep low-level lapse rates aided in momentum transfer of strong winds aloft to the surface. Wind damage occurred not only with the thunderstorms, but with the outflow as well.