On July 1st, 2012 a weak convergence boundary was in place over northern Georgia extending southwest across northeast/north central Alabama.  Upper level high pressure centered north of this boundary kept showers and thunderstorms from developing for much of the afternoon across the Tennessee Valley.  However, strong heating allowed max temperatures to climb to between 100 and 106 degrees Sunday afternoon.
      This produced an unstable atmosphere (CAPE values between 2000 J/kg and 3000 J/kg).  As this energy interacted with this weak boundary late in the afternoon into the evening hours, isolated to scattered strong to severe thunderstorms developed over portions of northern and northeastern Alabama. Below is an image of the wind and hail damage reports received from these storms.