Black Belt residents made their morning commute yesterday with a little less sleep than they are accustomed to getting. Sharp lightening and heavy thunder kept many from peaceful slumber and prompted some to seek stable shelter as conditions reached dangerous levels.

Fortunately, no major incidents were reported from the Thursday morning storms.

Unfortunately, Thursday night and Friday morning things were not expected to stray very far from the previous mornings conditions.

A warm front slide was expected to pass through the area Thursday night and early Friday morning bringing more rain, hail and possible tornadoes. Strong winds were also expected in the area.

The main concern for Demopolis continues to be flooding. The city remained under a flood watch all day Thursday and the trend was expected to continue Friday.

The National Weather Service in Birmingham said citizens should continue to be on the lookout for rising waters.

Darone Jones meteorologist with the service said the heavy rains and Demopolis’s close proximity to the Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers made it an easy target.

“The main concern down there will be flooding,” Jones said. “With all the rain that is going to come through and the rivers and waterways down there, flooding will definitely be an issue.”

Flooding is not always a matter of how much it rains in the River City. Since the river flows south to Mobile a lot of the flooding depends on how much rain areas around the rivers north of Demopolis get. Since most of Alabama is expected to continue to be drenched Jones said the possibility of flooding would remain.

“The rivers are going to continue to rise,” Jones said. “Naturally with the rains that is going to happen and that is something people should be on the lookout for down there.”

Jones said the skies should become more accommodating today, but warned boaters to take extreme caution.

“There will likely be heavy winds on Friday,” Jones said. “We will probably be looking at a wind advisory. It will not be a very good day for boating.”

After a rocky day Friday Jones said the outlook for the rest of the weekend was positive.

“It looks good for the weekend,” Jones said. “It should be clear and nice.”

Saturday plenty of sunshine is expected with highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the low 40’s.

Sunday should be more of the same with temperatures climbing into the 70’s and a low of about 46.