Saturday will inevitably feature some showers and thunderstorms across south Alabama and northwest Florida. MOST spots could be quite wet by the end of the day, however some places will inevitably stay dry throughout the day.

The National Weather Service in Mobile continues to suggest that the eastern half of our area has a slightly higher chance of rain, as you can see in their graphic (above).

I’ll have your detailed forecast posted by 7:15AM here in the RZWeather app.

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Gulf Breeze, FL rainbow view sent in by Anne Anderson…

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STORMS AROUND TODAY, BUT NOT LIKE YESTERDAY… After what will be remebered as a major derecho event for Alabama and northwest Florida yesterday, numerous showers and thunderstorms will be around in the afternoon and evening hours today and over the weekend. No areas should have “all day washout-type” rain, but the pop-up storms that do form will produce heavy rain and gusty winds. I am NOT expecting widespread severe weather like we saw last evening when a high impact derecho-type event happened. There could, however, be a few stronger storms around that briefly ramp up to severe levels. High temperatures over the next few days will remain in the low- to mid-90s.

HUNDREDS OF TREES DOWN ACROSS ALABAMA… There were hundreds of storm damage reports across the Deep South yesterday as a powerful derecho-type storm system moved by. Vast majority of the reports were because of trees falling due to strong damaging straight line winds. I am still surprised just how strong the outflow winds were out ahead of the main line of storms! Some of the damage that happened in our local area (downed tree limbs, etc.) was because of the wind out ahead of the storms. While there were NO tornadoes to speak of on Thursday, this event goes to show that it does NOT take tornadoes to do extensive, widespread damage. We note several structures were struck by lightning across our region as well, with at least one home near Sandcut having a major lightning strike well after the passage of the main line of storms.

HIGH-LEVEL ALERT TEST POSTPONED… Due to the severe storms and hazardous weather last evening, we postponed the High-Level Alert Test/giveaway contest that was supposed to happen at 8PM last evening. We will announce a rescheduled time to have the High-Level Alert Test and the giveaway next week. Severe weather always gets priority!

I’ve got all the forecast details for you in your Friday #rzw forecast video that will be posted shortly here in the RZWeather app… Enjoy the weekend!

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Many people reading this are probably still up because of lack of power/AC early on this Friday morning… There are thousands that remain without power across Alabama due to the storms that passed by on Thursday.

Be sure to follow @alabamapower on Twitter for the very latest if your power is out. Many local electric cooperatives also have social media pages to keep you informed.

Again, the severe weather threat ended several hours ago. I’m headed to sleep, but I’ll be up in a few hours to make the morning forecast package/video. See you then!

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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!

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