Schools are letting out early Wednesday in anticipation of severe weather moving in the afternoon that could spawn tornadoes locally and across north Alabama.

All Cullman County schools will end the school day at noon, while Cullman City Schools will let out at 12:30 p.m., with all extracurricular activities and extended-day programs canceled for the afternoon.

Cullman County got a dousing of rain accompanied by lightning as a smaller storm system blew through early Tuesday, with rainfall totals approaching or slightly exceeding a quarter of an inch in most areas. That storm system left the county unscathed, though the threat to safety and property is higher with the system that’s moving in Wednesday.

After a brief brush with lightning and heavy downpours in the early-morning hours Tuesday, a “better chance for strong to severe storms is forecast for Wednesday,” NWS advised in its hazardous weather outlook late Tuesday, “as a strong cold front sweeps across the area in the afternoon and early evening. Damaging wind gusts will be the primary concern, but large hail, a few tornadoes and locally heavy rainfall will also be possible.”

Though the current forecast has changed in the past couple of days and could change again, the weather service on Tuesday was anticipating afternoon highs in the mid-to-upper 70s Wednesday. The service’s Huntsville office expects the greatest safety hazards from Wednesday’s potential storms to stem from damaging winds, large hail, and possible tornadoes spawned by the system. All of Cullman County, as well as Alabama counties to the north and east, is included in the forecast’s highest “enhanced” risk category for severe weather.

Tuesday’s short blast of bad weather caused no property damage, safety issues, or flooding, said Cullman Emergency Management Agency director Tim Sartin. “It was pretty much just thunder and lightning and rain, and it moved on through,” he said Tuesday. But the local EMA is watching the thermometer today, with warmer temperatures potentially providing the key ingredient that could turn this afternoon’s storm system into something more severe.

“The weather service is saying that if it actually gets warm enough, we have a good chance of things getting pretty rough,” he said. “But it all depends on how much heat we get.”