Alabama is bracing for several days of potentially severe weather.

Jim Stefkovich, Meteorologist, Alabama Emergency Management Agency, said an unusually volatile atmosphere for June combined with continued upper level disturbances moving across the state will bring waves of showers and thunderstorms Thursday through Sunday, with unsettled weather continuing into the middle of next week.

“There will be breaks between waves and not every location in each day’s Severe Weather Outlook will receive severe weather.  Still, where severe weather does occur, these will be more like spring storms packing a punch rather than the typical summer events with less intensity,” Stefkovich said.

A tornado watch remains in effect or the southern portions of the state through 3 p.m. Thursday. For areas south of a Livingston – Montgomery – Auburn line, damaging wind gusts, large hail, torrential rainfall and a couple of tornadoes are all possible.  North of this line to just north of I-20, only a couple of severe storms are possible, with damaging gusts and hail the primary threats.

In addition, Flood Watches are in effect near and south of I-20 into this evening.

Storms will be in the central part of the state, including places like Birmingham and Talladega, from 1-7 p.m. The lower portion of the state will see storms through 5 p.m. with that time frame stretching to 9 p.m. for the extreme southern part of the state, including Mobile.

On Friday, another wave of storms is expected to move through the state, although confidence on timing and exact locations of the storms is unclear.  A few storms with damaging wind gusts and large hail are possible though development is unlikely.

On Saturday, another wave of storms may produce a few damaging wind gusts and large hail during the afternoon and evening hours south of a Tuscaloosa – Montgomery – Troy line. Yet another wave is likely sometime on Sunday with a severe threat across the northern portions of the state, but confidence is low on exact timing and location.