Pretty strong for North Georgia (from this mornings forecast disco from FFC
Issued at 419 AM EST Thu Jan 12 2023
Thursday Afternoon/Evening: Enhanced Risk for Severe Thunderstorms
A quasi-linear convective system is forecast to enter the far northwestern Georgia around noon Thursday, and will swiftly push through the forecast area, exiting to the southeast just before midnight. This QLCS is expected to form along or just ahead of a strong cold front, supported by a deep shortwave trough digging through the southeast and a deepening surface low-pressure system pushing from the Midwest into the eastern Great Lakes region through the day. Ahead of the line of storms, dewpoints will rise into the low 60s, which will boost SBCAPE values between 500-1250 J/kg through most of the areas with decent lapse rates. A 50 kt jet streak will also be in place at the 850 hPa level, with steady speed shear through the low- and mid-levels and clockwise curvature in forecast hodographs which will set 0-1 km SRH values between 150-300 m2/s2. Additionally, a layer of dry air in the mid-levels will make for effective downdrafts within the line of storms, which should be very efficient at transferring severe wind gusts down to the surface. The combination of severe weather parameters will also support Significant Tornado Parameter values over 2 ahead of the line with CAM ensembles like the HREF showing the line will have embedded supercells/circulations evident by a dense Updraft Helicity field.
The result will be a QLCS with a significant damaging wind gust threat within the strongest storms and where bowing line segments occur. Additionally, with strong parallel flow ahead of the storms, vorticity along the frontal zone will be enhanced, making it easier for brief, spin-up tornadoes to form within and propagate northeastward through the line of storms. Models have also indicated some discrete storms may form ahead of the line and become supercellular with a wind/tornado threat, but confidence is lower for this storms mode. Ultimately this setup, which is extremely potent for this time of year, has resulted in an Enhanced Risk (a 3 on a scale of 0-5) for Severe Thunderstorms, with the primary threat being damaging wind gusts up to 60 mph, and several brief tornadoes being the secondary threat. Please be advised of any Watches, Warnings, or Severe Weather Statements issued for your area today.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk