ALL CLEAR… The severe weather threat is officially over for all parts of south Alabama and northwest Florida as the last of the storms have moved across Dauphin Island. Over the next few hours, showers will continue across the region. I am concerned that the light of daybreak will unfortunately reveal more damage that was not seen before sunset. We have MANY, many reports of trees/tree limbs down across our region. The core of the damage locally seems to have been in Butler, Conecuh, Covington, Clarke, Monroe, and Escambia (AL) counties.
LATE BREAKING REPORT… Just got a note in from Elizabeth Godwin Bush that lightning struck a residence in the Sandcut community in southern Conecuh County at 8:30PM. That’s LONG after the storms moved through. We note there are showers on radar, and while the severe weather risk is over, the risk of lightning is not over.
POWER OUTAGE UPDATE… Many people reading this are still without power. The latest estimate from Alabama Power continues to show 50,000+ people still without power across the state, and that number is a conservative estimate. We understand that there are also customers in northwest Florida without power. I have no info at this time of an estimated time of when power will be restored.
NOTE ABOUT TOMORROW… I am watching another derecho-type storm complex move south in Tennessee. I expect this system to weaken overnight, per the latest mode guidance. There will be a chance of storms on Friday, however. Most of the storms should be below severe limits, but we note the Storm Prediction Center is calling for some of the storms to be on the strong side as much of our local area is included in their Level 1 (out of 5) marginal risk. I’ll have updates for you here in the RZWeather app and on rzweather.com as needed.
Have a great evening!