Severe thunderstorm warnings are issued when storms produce dangerous conditions like strong winds (up to 40 mph), hail (pea-sized to over an inch), and lightning; meteorologists monitor these storms using radar and lightning detection systems to track their movement and intensity, issuing warnings for 30-minute periods to allow public safety measures, with the main threats being wind damage and hail rather than tornadoes in this case.
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LIVE Weather Impact | Severe Weather CoverageAdded:
All righty. Hi guys. We have currently a severe thunderstorm warning for Wilkinson County.
Ignore the beeping if you're able to hear the beeping in the background.
We're trying to figure out that situation, but we're going to go ahead and dive in already to see what we have going on and our main threats right now, which look to be some strong winds.
So, I'm going to take I'm going to going to go ahead and take this full.
Let's see if we're able to Take. There we go.
So, currently what we have right now is a severe thunderstorm warning for Wilkinson County. We started off today nice and dry. Where was a severe thunderstorming southeast of our direction right here. So, I've been monitoring the storms as they continue to push in to our area. But, currently right now this severe thunderstorm warning is south of Irwinton. And if I can zoom in a little bit more, it's going to be north of 96 and west of US Highway 441 South. Just lots of lightning, lots of cloud to ground lightning, and wind speeds of up to 40 mph, and pea-sized hail. We have a couple counties that have had some hail already.
And as we take a look at this, this thunderstorm warning warning is until 4:00 p.m. So, for 30 minutes.
But, um as we play this around, you can see it's kind of popped up with the heat of the day.
We have a lot of moisture coming in from the southeast and that's fueling a lot of these storms, especially with our dew points being in the 70s. This is the only current severe thunderstorm warning right now. I'm still keeping an eye on a couple storms moving to the southeast and this specific one in Bleckley County that has been producing a lot of hail.
We'll go ahead and take a look to see if this particular storm is giving us some hail and it definitely is. So, right now this particular severe thunderstorm warning is giving us a hail size of about an inch, if not a little over, probably about an inch and a half.
And then a couple spots still have about pea-sized to half-size and quarter-sized hail.
And Bleckley County, there's some in Twiggs County.
And then right in Irwinton, we have some pea-sized hail.
So, as we go back to our severe thunderstorm warning, this is the only current one that we have right now. Yet again, the main threat is wind speeds of up to 40 mph, some pea-sized hail, but that one's producing way bigger sizes than just pea-sized hail, about half an inch to a little over an inch.
And we'll continue to keep monitoring and seeing if these storms become a little bit stronger. The severe threat today is a level one risk out of five. So, we don't have a big risk for tornadoes at all, so that is very, very low. The main risk for today will be some strong and damaging winds. So, you don't want to be outside right now, especially if you're in Wilkinson County right now, if you're in Bleckley County, this storm right here will be moving into Twiggs County.
And especially this pile of storms that are moving into Wilcox and Wheeler County right now. Overall, East Central Georgia is pretty much in the clear.
Temperatures right now are very very warm.
I'm going to pull up current temperatures and you're going to see how warm it is. Especially it being another hot day, we're seeing mid upper 80s, low 90s. So, a lot of this is fueling our storms quite a bit and especially these humidity levels. We have some not bad to muggy air, but dew points are in the low 70s. So, as we continue to look at our severe thunderstorm warning, we'll see we'll see that um it's just producing some really heavy rainfall. We're seeing shades of orange and dark purple and the pinks.
So, also a main concern for today is localized heavy flooding or just lots of heavy rainfall, especially in these isolated locations. Most of these storms will continue to be more scattered but then and more isolated in nature.
Um Pardon me. I'm trying to see if I can take a look at the individual storm right now. Uh All right. The severe thunderstorm warning still to last until 4:00 p.m.
So, right now it's 3:38 p.m.
And it's lost a lot of lightning. There There a lot more lightning a little bit ago. It's still producing a little bit more. But yet again, you still want to be indoors.
Like we always say, thunder roars, go indoors. We have a lot of cloud-to-ground lightning occurring.
Let's see.
Let me see if I'm able to see how many lightning strikes we're able to see right now. Let's see.
Here we go.
All right. So, there's been a number of 70 total strikes currently happening happening.
51 positive strikes. When we see that positive strikes, that's what we're talking about for cloud-to-ground lightning. So, 51 is quite a lot of lightning and very dangerous to be outside and to be struck by lightning. The duration of this has been for about 30 minutes.
And so, as we continue to go into this Sunday afternoon, you'll want to be careful and be indoors, especially >> [snorts] >> if you're around this area right now. Like I said, it's south of Irwinton is a very large storm right in between US Highway 441 south and north of 96.
Overall, no major threats for tornadoes at all. There's another storm that is producing some very locally heavy rainfall north of Cochran near I-129.
It is also producing some lightning.
And let's see if this area is producing any cloud to ground lightning. So, about 29 like lightning strikes, positive strikes 17. So, it is still producing some ground to cloud to ground lightning as we head into the afternoon. Overall, the main portions that we have is this batch right here in Wilkinson, Twiggs, and Bleckley County.
And as we look north, there is still a batch of storms near Jasper in Jasper in the Monticello area also producing a little bit of lightning.
Um These storms are moving north and west.
So, for the last 2 hours, they were coming out of the south southeast portion. Lots of southern parts of Georgia have received lots of lightning, especially this batch right here.
And this storm was producing a lot more lightning, and right now it's not producing as much lightning, but still pretty dangerous to be outside.
Um Um I can hear some some thunder right now here at the station, and that's from this batch of storms moving this batch of storms moving into Macon right now. So, let me see if my pointer will work.
Pointer, pointer.
I don't think it's working.
Okay.
Um This severe uh thunderstorm warning is still going on until 4:00 p.m. It's 3:42.
It is still producing um some very significant hail core signatures.
If we take a look right now, let's see if that hail core has gone down. It has gone down. We were seeing some very bright yellow with the hail core, and now it's gone down to pea and half size. We still are seeing some hail in Cochran, north of Cochran in Bleckley County right now, and then a few hail signatures in between Twiggs and Houston County near Bonaire.
So, these storms are producing a little bit of hail. We have a couple more signatures south of Coopers, north of Wilkinson, bordering Hancock County, and thankfully, these are going down a little bit. We had some stronger hail cores, but main concern right now is just these winds of up to 40 mph.
>> [snorts] >> Um A lot of these Okay.
All right, we'll continue to look at a couple more things.
This storm in particular looks like it's still producing a lot lot of rain, but it is moving north right now.
And then despatches storms in Twiggs, this to move into Bibb County currently.
And we can hear some of that thunder here at the station already.
Okay, I did just hear from my digital producer that there's a couple Facebook questions. So, let me pull up Facebook quickly and see if I can answer some questions.
Let's see.
Um Okay.
Sorry, guys.
Um All right.
Just give me one moment.
Um I did not see all of these guys. So, I I'm going to go ahead and take a look at this.
Pardon if I'm a little bit nervous.
Um Let's see. Can I see all of the questions?
Uh See.
Okay.
Pardon if I'm a little bit quiet. I'm just trying to open up this live stream so I can look at some of these questions.
Okay. There we go.
Please read the comments. I'm so sorry.
I'm I'm reading them right now.
Um Uh okay.
Where is it headed? Would it come Okay, there's thunder reported in Bonaire, and we can see a lot of thunder in Bonaire right now.
And yes, we can can confirm that there's lightning lightning, strong winds, heavy rain, and hail in Bleckley County right now.
Um let me see if there's any other questions. I'm so sorry that the Braves are delayed. These storms are going to be mov- moving towards the metro, and the metro has had a couple reports of some pea-size hail due to the National Weather Service, and they've also reported confirmations and from Facebook comments, I can see that there has been more confirmations on those hail cores in Wilkinson County.
Um storms are heading towards Macon. I did have a question saying if storms were heading towards Macon.
So, we do have a couple of storms moving in towards the east side of Macon in the area >> [sighs and gasps] >> east towards our east side of Macon um along I-16.
So, there is some lightning associated with that.
Um still this current uh severe thunderstorm watch for Wilkinson County is still until 4:00 p.m.
Um is coming Is the hail concerning? Do I need to move my truck in the in the garage?
So, if you do have a a garage, I would move your truck or car into the garage, but the hail is very small, but still it is producing a lot of hail.
We're seeing up up to pea size and half size hail. It was a little over an inch around 3 hours ago. So this was 3 hours ago and if we play this out a little bit, we can see that most of the hail in Bleckley County and Cochran has been around an inch. And as it continues to move, it's still producing up to an inch size hail. So if you live in Bleckley County, I would say if you have a garage, then to put your car in the garage for that question. And then for anybody in Wilkinson Wilkinson County, that size hail is pea to a half size.
And there's still very little spots of hail in Lawrence County and Twiggs County. That's what I can see right now in terms of hail sizes. There was a little bit of hail in Wilcox County south of McRae.
We can see it's very small pea size hail.
But the most significant sizes I would say is north of Cochran and Bleckley County, especially if I I'm going to zoom in on if especially if you live in Colquitt.
There's up to an inch size hail in Colquitt along I-23 and Interstate 112.
And we did see some confirmations for some hail in and near Bon Air.
So I know that there is a confirmation on that. I'm going to go back to our radar and look at the movement of the storm and see where it's heading to next. So it is moving in a north northwest direction. A couple of these batches of storms that have had a couple severe thunderstorm warnings towards our south will be moving into our southeastern counties like Telfair, Wheeler, and Montgomery.
And they're going to keep taking this direction towards the northwest. Let me see if I can use a pointer. I thought I had a pointer. There we go. I've discovered how to use a pointer.
Okay.
So, these storms will be moving in kind of this direction.
If you can see the path of movement of the storms. So, this batch of storms that's in Cochran right now and kind of stringing along the border of Bibb and Houston in Wilkinson County will continue to move in a northwest direction.
And [snorts] this batch of storms in Wilkinson is moving pretty slow.
I can check the movement of [snorts] the current storm.
Um Uh you can expect some minor tree damage like limbs and blowing around unsecure objects. So, I did have somebody mention um I think outdoor I'm in Macon. Should I light my grill?
No, I would not light your grill.
Um we do have a couple showers and storms moving into the area as towards the east part of Bibb County. So, if you all if you do live in Macon and you wanted to light up your grill, um I would say it may not be the best time to light your grill, especially with some of these storms moving in.
Um let's go ahead and see if I can zoom in a little bit more.
Uh most of Bibb County is clear. We do have a storm north of Macon.
North of Ingleside, but we do have some lightning and some heavier rainfall along I-16.
This particular isolated cell east of Bonaire has been producing a lot of hail and a lot of lightning.
And then this batch of storms is still producing a very good bit of lightning. If I take a look at this lightning again, still about 49 lightning strikes, positive strikes.
It means cloud lots of frequent cloud-to-ground lightning. So, you want to stay indoors at least until the evening. If you had any plans to be outdoors for the next couple hours, I would probably delay those and stay inside for just the next couple hours as we head into nighttime. Once temperatures cool off a bit and we head into the evening, we we'll see a lot of these storms lose a lot of fuel and die down.
So, we do have a batch of storms in on the border actually of Laurens County and Johnson County that is producing some heavy rainfall and some lightning.
And then Laurens County, a couple more storms have been popping up along I-16.
There's still some small isolated showers of some steady rainfall. And then as we look to our southeast, a couple of these storms are starting to move in our direction. So, we'll keep an eye on some of these.
I will say if you live in Wilcox count not Wilcox. I keep I'm so sorry, guys.
I've been saying Wilcox the entire time and it's I've been referring to Telfair County. Uh my apologies. I've been actually referring to Telfair County. Um this batch of storms will be moving into Telfair County in within the next 30 minutes. I think I can wait. Um here it is.
I think I can Okay. Within the next 30 minutes.
Um All right. Let me see if there's any other questions that I have may have missed.
Um Let's see. Let's see.
We still have this severe thunderstorm warning in place for Wilkinson County.
Uh it expires in about 6 5 minutes. It's 3:55 right now. It has dialed down quite a bit. It had up to an inch of hail and currently right now and that hail size has gone down to about half an inch to a quarter.
But, it is on the way out as you've noticed the the storm had its initial location right here for that inch size hail, so it is starting to move out and it will cross into um Wait, let me zoom out a little bit.
Okay, now that I can see.
Um into Baldwin County soon. So, anybody in Coopers will experience some at least pea-to-quarter-size hail within the next couple of minutes as this starts to cross over.
Hail sizes have gone down. We did see a couple different places with up to an inch, but sales hail sizes have gone down.
There hasn't been any tornado concerns. Like I said, this is a level one out of five risk, so we're not looking at anything in terms of a spin-up tornado or anything. So, that's the good news out of all of this.
And some also good news is we're getting lots of rainfall with this um as we head into the next hour.
Okay.
I'll see if I can have this play over and over.
See.
Um there is a severe thunderstorm warning to our south and I'll keep an eye on this movement as it could cross into Wilcox and Crisp within the next hour, but we'll keep looking at that movement of the storm to see which direction it will take place. I still hear a little bit of thunder here at the station.
So, storms are starting to to cross into Bibb County right now.
And the storm right here in Johnson County is producing some really heavy rainfall.
All right, let's take a wider look at everything and go ahead and uh look at some wind speeds.
So, we have within the next hour, we should see a lot of this push through and dial down by 6:00 7:00. The main concerns with this was the wind speeds.
So, looking at future view, it's giving us wind speeds of up to about That was the main concern with this. That severe thunderstorm warning was for 40 mph winds in Wilkinson County, which is enough to blow some debris around and break a couple limbs off some trees.
And obviously, some of that hail can contribute to that as well.
Right now, it has dialed down quite a bit. This, I think the National Weather Service will let this expire.
And I don't think there'll be a continuation with this storm in particular since the main concern was the hail size with it of about an inch to half an inch.
So, this should expire in about 2 minutes.
And then, we'll just keep an eye on the batch of storms towards our south right here that's moving in.
This particular severe thunderstorm warning towards our south, south of Wilcox County south of Ben Hill County is until 4:30. So, this could continue into our region.
And then a couple of some very locally heavy rainfall and lots of lightning will move into Telfair soon.
So, overall everything else looks okay. I don't see any major signatures are I think our biggest concern today was wind speeds and that hail.
And let's take a look at Facebook and see if we've had some other questions.
I wonder if I can refresh this.
Refresh.
All right.
We did get quite hot today. Today was a very hot and warm day. A lot of that heat did contribute with the storm development. We had a lot of moisture come in from the south and the southeast. I think we saw those winds pulling our direction yesterday. It was a bit muggier earlier. Dew points were in the low 70s. Now, it has dialed down just slightly, but still kind of muggy >> [snorts] >> out there. Current temperatures across the southeast are super warm right now currently. We're seeing still upper 80s, low 90s. We hit 91 here in Macon today.
So, definitely a hot day, a very summer-like pattern that we're used to seeing in the summer, especially with those heat of the daytime moments and pop-up storms that move through. Oh, I think we've had Oh, there's a lot more comments.
Sorry, my Facebook is not refreshing as soon as I'm seeing the comments come in.
I see about 30 more comments. I'll briefly quickly look through them to see if we have some more questions.
That severe thunderstorm warning for Wilkinson County has expired.
So, we're good on that one.
No severe thunderstorm warnings currently. Still keeping an eye on some of these storms towards our south that can move into our area and could continue especially um the one south of Fitzgerald right now.
But, I will do a quick skim of um Yes, it's hailing on my house, but very small.
Yeah, we had We had a range of hail sizes today from pea-size to quarter-size, half-size, and a little over an inch. It was tough in Cochran, a lot of hail. Yes, that storm did sit over Cochran for about 30 minutes.
So, that was a very strong storm and it had lots of lightning strikes, lots of cloud-to-ground. That is that has weakened and that severe thunderstorm warning has expired. So, now that storm is moving towards Baldwin County right now, but still producing lots of lightning, lots of lightning.
So, I would stay indoors. I would not light the grill especially with this lightning.
Hail in Cochran, hail in Irwinton.
Uh Bass Road, thought I heard thunder off of Bass Road.
There is some storms moving into East Bibb.
That's producing a lot of lightning.
Like I said, a lot of these storms have been kind of going down I-16.
Um Uh how big?
Still raining in Wilkinson, harder.
Thought you said four.
So, the severe thunderstorm warning was until four for potentially that warning for that storm to become severe, so we were keeping an eye on it. So, 4:00 was when that severe thunderstorm warning expired. There still can be some rain within the area, but that storm is still moving northward. It's kind of moving slow.
And that's why I had mentioned that 4:00. It was just due to the length of that severe thunderstorm warning, especially due to the hail size. That hail size was at around an inch.
Um Um sorry, I'm reading through a little bit.
Northwest Macon right now.
Just has a few light showers towards north of Macon.
Um In between I-75 and I-16 north of Riverside Drive.
So, nothing potentially strong there right now, but we do have some strong storms southeast of Macon, and let's look at the movement of the storm to see where this is going.
Let's see.
I'll be more moving north and west.
Okay.
Um I did have a couple comments about 4:00. So, the severe thunderstorm warning was until 4:00 for that particular cell producing some very strong hail.
So, um that storm is still moving north as we speak. It's still going to produce rain as it has into Baldwin County, but it has lost a lot of its a lot of its fuel.
That hail size has gone down. The main concern was for that hail size. Earlier, we saw that hail size was up to an inch. So, if you can see within the last 3 hours, and I can try to make this a little bit slower.
So, the reason that we had that severe thunderstorm warning was right here.
There was about even more than an inch.
Well, some hail sizes of about an inch and a half to almost 2 inches. So, that's why that severe thunderstorm warning was in play.
But, that storm is still moving. It's just not producing such large hail sizes right now. So, right now it's weakened and it is on a weakening trend and it's producing up to half-size hail.
And a pea-size hail, so a quarter-size to a half inch.
Sorry, I'm going to have an inch um of hail.
So, that was the reasoning for that severe thunderstorm warning. It was packing a little bit of a punch. Um this cell right now east of Rutland is still it's producing a little bit stronger now. So, we have hail sizes of up to an inch in the storm in the center core of it.
So, anybody east of Sorry if I'm scrolling so fast. I'm trying to scroll a little slowly so you guys are able to see it. But, east of Rutland west of I-16 especially those Let me see if I can zoom into some towns or some streets.
Um Okay, yeah, east of Rutland.
Um is producing up to an inch size hail.
So, I would say come indoors and we'll take one last look at the radar as I take a look at at a few of these storms.
So, this storm right here still until 4:30.
But, overall for Central Georgia, we don't have any active severe thunderstorm warnings right now.
I I'm going to check in with my digital team about any more questions.
Um All right, we do have a special weather statement for a strong thunderstorm um in Central Bibb and South Central Jones counties through 4:45.
Um and that's this storm right here that I was just showing those hail sizes of up to an inch.
>> All right.
So, no active warnings for us right now.
That warning that we did have has expired as that storm is moving north.
I know I I saw a question that says, "When does the storm move north northwest?" I know it's very odd for us to see storms to move south to north.
We're very typical to seeing storms moving east to west. We did have a lot of some We had some southerly flow and our high pressure that gave us those beautiful blue skies and really clear days last couple days has moved towards the east and off the coast. So, that's actually just spinning um and moving our winds um in a clockwise direction, which has brought our winds to come out of the south and southeast. So, if I zoom out a bit, that's why a lot of these showers and storms have been moving in this direction, kind of south to north, which is not as common to see. We're very typical of seeing it move west to east. So, that's why a lot of these showers and storms have started popping up in Telfair and Laurens and Bleckley and then started moving north towards Bibb and Wilkinson and Baldwin and now will be moving towards the Atlanta metro area.
So, I know it's kind of odd. It's not something that we see very often.
Um Uh I received reports of Pine Street in Gordon. Not getting anything but thunder right now.
Um I pray for Lakisha that's driving back from Columbus to Bonaire. I think by Columbus an hour and a half to here. Hopefully you don't run into any of these storms.
Um for Melanie that lives in Bibb off of Bass Road that has an outdoor cat. There is a stronger storm south of Macon right now and let me zoom into There is some light steady rain within the downtown area.
But right now nothing just yet towards that area.
In particular, let's see.
If you live east of terracotta or near terracotta, there is still lots of a heavy rainfall and some lightning.
Um All righty.
Uh pea-size hail was found in Colony Farm area in Milledgeville.
And it's hailing in Haddock.
Mhm.
So, before we leave, I'm just going to go over current hail sizes right now, since that's the main priority.
>> [snorts] >> Um there's no active warnings right now, but we've had had a couple spots see up to about an inch and even almost close to 2 inches of hail.
Currently right now, there is some hail in Jones County on the border of Jones, Baldwin, and Wilkinson, north of Gordon. They're still some hail south of Macon, closer to Rutland, north east of Rutland. We did [snorts] see lots of reports of hail in Bonaire.
And then there's currently hail up to about an inch um in Laurens County right now.
So, we do have some storms starting to move into our southern counties.
Um these are producing some very large hail sizes, especially near Jacksonville.
I'll start to move into Telfair County and on the very leaning edge of Montgomery County. So, hail and some very gusty winds and some very strong rainfall is the primary concern that we've had today. Um tornadoes has not been a concern, very very low. We're only on a level one out of five risk.
Right now, no active warnings. We did come on air earlier for a severe thunderstorm warning that lasted about 30 minutes in Wilkinson County. That is currently moving into Baldwin County right now.
There's a lot of lightning, so I would just encourage everybody to stay indoors. Um this will die down by the evening. So, you'll go to bed very safe and sound with no severe weather.
But, currently right now, we're in the clear. I'm going to go ahead and leave you with the radar. I'm going to get ready for the 6:00 show. We are on the stream. Let me see if I can come back to you guys.
Um, There you go. Here's to put the the face to the voice. Um, as we go ahead into the evening, I am going to continue monitoring the radar to see if anything does pop up and still tune into the National Weather Service to see if there's any been any more reports. We do still have just a couple statements, but no active warnings right now. I am going to get ready for the 6:00 show. We're on the stream. So, find us on 13WMAZ Plus and our digital producer will keep you with the radar so you can take a look at um, where the storms are moving as we head into the afternoon and evening. Thank you guys.
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