TORNADO WATCH IN EFFECT UNTIL 7PM… The Storm Prediction Center has issued a Tornado Watch for much of Alabama, southeast Mississippi, and the Florida panhandle valid until 7PM. Tornadoes, damaging straight line winds, large hail, and flash flooding will all be concerns over the next few hours as a strong to severe line of thunderstorms moves into Alabama from Mississippi.
SOUTH AL & NW FL AREAS INCLUDED… South Alabama has a slew of counties included. Clarke, Washington, Choctaw, Monroe, Escambia (AL), Conecuh, Baldwin, and Mobile counties are involved. Escambia (FL) and Santa Rosa counties in northwest Florida are also included in the Tornado Watch. Just to name a few of the cities/towns involved: Thomasville, Coffeeville, Gilbertown, Butler, Sweet Water, Linden, Jackson, Grove Hill, Leroy, Chatom, Mobile, Daphne, Fairhope, Bay Minette, Monroeville, Uriah, Beatrice, Mexia, Repton, Evergreen, Castleberry, Owassa, Midway, Atmore, Poarch, Flomaton, Barnetts Crossroads, Brewton, Appleton, Riverview, East Brewton, Damascus, Pensacola, Milton, Molino, Jay, Berrydale, Gulf Breeze, Pensacola Beach, Navarre, Berrydale, and Munson.
OTHER AREAS INCLUDED… Numerous central Alabama cities and counties are also involved. Here are just a few: Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Jasper, Fayette, Eutaw, Demopolis, Selma, Livingston, and Camden. We also note that much of east Mississippi is included in this new tornado watch.
TORNADO WARNINGS TO THE WEST… Several tornado warnings have happened over the last few minutes across south Mississippi. The Hattiesburg, MS area was included in a tornado warning a short time ago. Numerous severe thunderstorm warnings are in effect in southeast Mississippi as this main line of storms moves east. Several reports of trees down over the last hour!
FLASH FLOOD WATCH CONTINUES… The Flash Flood Watch has been extended eastward, and now includes Monroe, Conecuh, Butler, Escambia (AL), Santa Rosa, Escambia (FL), and Baldwin counties in our local area. This is in addition to Clarke, Mobile, and Washington counties that were already involved in the Flash Flood Watch. 2-4” of rain is possible across our area. Greater rain amounts are likely over west Alabama.
HAVE A WAY TO GET WARNINGS… Please have at least one way to receive weather warnings. Multiple ways to get the warnings are preferable! Most folks take tornado warnings seriously, but most do NOT take severe thunderstorm warnings seriously. Take my word for it… We need to take severe thunderstorm warnings seriously on Saturday! Damaging wind gusts could be 70-80mph in the stronger storms, easily capable of knocking down trees. NOAA Weather Radio is a great way to get warnings, as are automatic weather alerting apps on smartphones that are set up properly. Saf-T-Net is a free, good one. Weather Radio by WDT is a paid option, but works great. Our free RedZone Weather app provides (non-automated) handcrafted alerts sent by me. More about that below…
REDZONE WEATHER APP… Here’s the important part: Be sure to go to the Alerts tab (bottom right tab in the app) then tap the large, yellow “Alert Settings” button to go in and configure the alerts you want to receive from us. A lengthy description is provided in the Alert tab as to what each option is. We had so many folks trying to access the app when I sent our first “High Level Alert” that our app servers briefly crash. If you get a “database error” or anything like that, tap the “Latest” button in the app after a minute or two. We increased traffic capacity due to this!