Chief Meteorologist James Spann for ABC 33/40 visited Clanton on Thursday night as part of his Storm Alert Tour.

Spann and his team used the April 27 tornadoes and the Jan. 23 tornadoes that came through Maplesville as examples of the need for everyone to be prepared by having a weather radio and a plan in place at home.

“We’ve got to get away from this mentality that everyone is (alike)” Spann said of the importance of issuing warnings through all available media (i.e. TV, radio, telephone, Internet and sirens).

In other weather news, rain has been a recurring trend this winter season for Chilton County and surrounding Alabama counties, and residents here should expect the trend to continue the next few days.

Meteorologist Matt Anderson of the National Weather Service in Birmingham said Chilton County should see showers beginning Thursday night as early as 6 p.m. with chances of a thunderstorm or two.

Residents might see some potentially severe thunderstorms Friday morning and into the afternoon, Anderson said, but Chilton is on the northern edge of the storm system and most likely will not experience storms as severe as could move into the more southern areas of the state.

“We probably have another inch of rain to round out the month,” Anderson said. “We’re going to be probably an inch or two inches above what we had last February.”

February 2013 has charted 4.68 inches of rain to date compared to last February’s total of 4.26 inches.

January 2013 was also rainier than its 2012 counterpart with 7.52 inches of rain compared to 6.4 inches last year.

“That’s probably just around 15 or 20 percent more,” Anderson said. “(It’s) not a lot more, but still more than last year.”

Saturday and part of Sunday should see a brief break from rain until it moves back in Sunday night and into Monday morning.

Temperatures are expected to get higher the next two days, with highs in the mid- to upper 60s and the lows in the mid-50s on Friday.

The weekend will see highs in the lower 60s. Saturday morning will be about 50 degrees, and Sunday morning lows will settle at about 40 degrees.

Monday morning lows will be in the upper 40s.

“Next week, it looks like our temps will be running near average this time of year (with) highs around 60 and lows around 40 much of the week,” Anderson said. “After that, the rain moves out early on Tuesday.”

Anderson said the threat of damaging winds is low for the area in the next 3–5 days.