With a First Alert Weather Day for Saturday, March 15, 2025, and a rare high risk issued by the NOAA/National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, we’re looking at statistics on how recently and how often we’ve seen these predictions for central Alabama.

Severe weather can strike at any time, and when it does, it’s important to understand the level of threat you're facing. The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) uses a system of risk categories to communicate the severity of weather events on any given day.

Severe weather is defined as a thunderstorm that produces one of the following: measured wind gusts to at least 58 mph, storms capable of producing wind damage (trees, structures, power lines), hail at least one inch in diameter (the size of a quarter) and/or a tornado.

The threat of violent tornadoes proved deadly as well as destructive as whipping winds moved east into the Mississippi Valley and Deep South, with at least six killed and scores of homes decimated.

Winds gusting up to 80 mph were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier areas to the south.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center warned of "near historic" fire conditions in the Plains.