5:30 p.m. UPDATE: The first round of severe thunderstorms has passed through the local area, leaving a number of downed trees and power outages scattered about.

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for nearly all of central and north Alabama, including Jefferson, Blount and Walker counties. It remains in effect until midnight.

As of 5 p.m., Alabama Power reported about 30,000 customers without power in metro Birmingham, and 55,000 total in the state.

This afternoon’s storms marked the first of at least two waves of severe weather expected through the overnight hours. A line of storms is also slowly moving eastward out of Mississippi, and may bring more severe thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes. There have been several tornado warnings issued along this line in Mississippi and Tennessee.

The NWS has also upgraded to a high likelihood of damaging winds from these storms, and a medium threat of tornadoes and of flooding through Tuesday morning.