BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) You may have noticed the banner on the top of our new web page that shows the AREAL FLOOD WARNING that is currently up for parts of Alabama.
 
This prompted some viewers to tell us that we had misspelled the word "areal," and that it should be "area."

The word ‘areal’ is a real word and was recently adopted by the National Weather Service.

Areal is just the adjective version of the noun ‘area’ and is used by the National Weather Service to describe the possible flooding over a large area.

All watches and warnings that show up on cbs42.com come directly from the National Weather Service and are posted automatically on the top of our web page.