ALBERTO CAUSING HEAVY RAIN ACROSS OUR AREA… Rain rates of 2-3” per hour are being observed in northern Okaloosa and southern Covington counties as the center of Subtropical Storm Alberto moves by. Flash Flood Warnings remain in effect until late this evening for all/parts of Covington, Okaloosa, and Walton counties. Heavy rain is also starting now in the eastern parts of Escambia (AL) and Conecuh counties. Alberto will continue lifting north over the next few hours.
POSITION UPDATE & WHAT TO EXPECT… As of 8PM, the center of Alberto is very near Laurel Hill, Florala, Lockhart, and Paxton. The center of the storm will be moving into southern Covington County, Alabama within the hour. Alberto will continue to drop very heavy, continuous rain near the center of the storm as it moves across Covington County and ultimately into Butler/Crenshaw counties overnight. Rain bands will continue to provide intermittent heavy downpours of rain in Clarke, Washington, Monroe, Conecuh, Escambia (AL), Baldwin, Mobile, Escambia (FL), and Santa Rosa counties over the next few hours.
Heavy rain associated with Alberto should clear the area around 5-6AM on Tuesday as the last of the showers lift north of Butler and Crenshaw counties. More (seasonal-type) storms will pop up across the area on Tuesday.
FLASH FLOODING ISSUES… Flash Flood Warnings continue across Covington, Okaloosa, and Walton counties where 5-6” of rain has happened in some isolated spots. We encourage NO driving in areas where a flash flood warning is active! Don’t be driving out on the wet roads unless you have to, especially if a flash flood warning is in effect. Clearly, the greatest risk of flash flooding and inundation-type flooding will happen over the next 3 hours in Covington, Butler, Crenshaw, eastern Conecuh, and eastern Escambia (AL) counties in south central Alabama.
ISOLATED TORNADO RISK TO OUR EAST… There continues to be a low-end tornado risk near and east of the center of Alberto. Southeast Alabama, the Florida Panhandle east of Crestview and Destin, and southwest Georgia are all involved in the low-end tornado risk. Locally, a very LOW chance of a brief spin-up tornado is in place for Okaloosa, Covington, Walton, Crenshaw, and Butler counties. The chance of a tornado happening to the west of those counties is basically nil. For Alabama, the (slightly) higher tornado risk is in place for Houston, Geneva, Henry, Dale, Coffee, Pike, and Barbour counties. This low-end tornado risk will shift inland into east Alabama and west Georgia overnight into Tuesday. If you’re traveling to Atlanta, Auburn, Athens (GA), or Columbus (GA), you should know there is a low-end tornado risk in place on Tuesday.
GREAT PICS TODAY… Thank you so much to everyone who sent in their views from across south Alabama and northwest Florida today. It is always incredibly helpful to have eyes and ears on the ground across our region. If you missed the angry seas of the Gulf of Mexico pics from earlier, be sure to scroll back through in the RedZone Weather app to check them out. Same thing with the gorgous rainbow pics from Poarch tonight in addition to Ditto Gorme’s beautiful sunset shot from Atmore. Again, thank you to each person who sends us your weather views! It really means a lot to me. By the way, if you send us a pic in the Photo tab (bottom middle tab) of the RedZone Weather app, always make sure to fill in the “Name” slot so we can attribute the photo to you.
THANKS FOR SUPPORTING REDZONE WEATHER! This will probably end up being the final live video required in our Alberto coverage, as impacts will begin to lessen overnight. THANK YOU so much to everyone who has supported me and supported RedZone Weather over the last few days. I can put the time and effort into making forecasts and graphics and everything else, but at the end of the day, it’s YOU who makes RedZone Weather a success by liking, sharing, and commenting on our content. Thank you so much. Be sure to also support our incredibly generous sponsors! (redzoneweather.com/sponsors) It really is an honor for me to be your meteorologist!
APP/NEXT UPDATE… I’ll have plenty more updates overnight in the RedZone Weather app and we will resume our normal, one-per-day morning video on Tuesday morning at 7:15AM. Have a great evening!