There is a strong likelihood that metro Birmingham will be hit by severe weather today, including tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service. And because pf that, nearly all local schools will dismiss early, and Gardendale will also close the city’s non-emergency departments early.

Jefferson County schools will close at 12:30 p.m. today, as will Tabernacle Christian School in Gardendale. Blount County schools will dismiss at noon. This also automatically cancels all high school baseball, softball, soccer and tennis competition for this afternoon and evening.

In addition, Mayor Othell Phillips announced via Facebook that all of the city of Gardendale’s non-emergency departments will close at noon, and all youth sports for tonight are cancelled.

All of this comes in advance of a storm system covering an area from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana all the way to the Canadian provinces of Ontario. The northern two-thirds of Alabama is under a moderate risk for severe weather this afternoon, according to the NWS Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma, with a 45 percent chance of severe weather within 25 miles of any given point for the northern part of the state, and 30 percent in the middle third. (Metro BVirmongham falls on the line between those two areas.)

Farther to the north, the NWS says there is a high risk of severe weather, including long-track supercell tornadoes, for an area stretching from metro Louisville to metro Nashville, including the cities of Lexington, Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Owensboro and Glasgow in Kentucky. This will be the region that is likely to be hardest hit if a tornado outbreak does occur, but strong tornadoes are possible anywhere in the advisory area today, including Alabama.

We’ll update this situation regularly today on The North Jefferson News website, our Facebook page and our Twitter feed.