Tornado Headed for North Birmingham?

All right - technically not in our coverage area, but this is a fairly strong signature, still, and a tornado was confirmed earlier with this. Get to a small room or hallway on the lowest floor of a sturdy home/building. Protect your head. Pillows, blankets, even like a bike helmet - good ideas - especially if you have kids.

Excellent coverage from Brian Peters, James Spann, and Ashley Brand here. At the moment it looks like it's going just north of downtown Birmingham, but it is a close call. Good thing is the NWS Birmingham has given excellent lead time on this.

Closer to home as of 3:15 Rosalie, Flat Rock, Higdon, stay sheltered for now - warning expires at 3:30.

Fairfield, West Jefferson, Oak Grove, Birmingham . . . be in your tornado shelter.

3:18 - Man, this really sucks for people in the path toward Birmingham, to put it mildly. If you know somebody down that way, great idea from Ashley Brand on Twitter, go ahead and call them - this is WORTH waking people up for.

Small centralized room or hallway on the lowest level of a sturdy structure - and for the kids especially, protect the head . . . a helmet is good, or just pillows/blankets. This looks fairly serious. Could have a significant tornado headed for Birmingham right now. Don't take any chances with this.

Also, even further away, but this is confirmed by emergency management - tornado affected Sumter/Greene counties. The University of West Alabama is actually in the path of this. Again, worth waking people up for. Call if you have loved ones in these areas. 

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
302 AM CST MON JAN 23 2012

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
NORTHWESTERN JEFFERSON COUNTY IN ALABAMA...
NORTHEASTERN TUSCALOOSA COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL ALABAMA...
SOUTHEASTERN WALKER COUNTY IN ALABAMA...

* UNTIL 345 AM CST

* AT 257 AM CST...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WAS TRACKING A
CONFIRMED TORNADO 7 MILES SOUTHWEST OF BANKHEAD LOCK AND DAM...OR
11 MILES NORTH OF HOLT. DOPPLER RADAR SHOWED THIS TORNADO MOVING
EAST AT 45 MPH. SEVERAL REPORTS OF DAMAGE HAVE BEEN
REPORTED...THIS IS A DANGEROUS SITUATION!

* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE...
FAIRFIELD...BIRMINGHAM...BANKHEAD LOCK AND DAM...BULL CITY...OAK
GROVE...SYLVAN SPRINGS...WEST JEFFERSON...QUINTON...MAYTOWN AND
MULGA.

THIS INCLUDES...
INTERSTATE 65 EXIT NUMBERS 261 THROUGH 275...
US 78 EXIT NUMBERS 78 THROUGH 91...
INTERSTATE 20 EXIT NUMBERS 118 THROUGH 128...

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

TORNADOES ARE DIFFICULT TO SEE AND CONFIRM AT NIGHT. TAKE COVER NOW.