SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH TILL 7PM: LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS POSSIBLE… The entirety of south Alabama and northwest Florida is now under a severe thunderstorm watch valid until 7PM this evening. Severe thunderstorms have developed in the last 30 minutes across northern Clarke, Monroe, Wilcox, and Marengo counties and are moving southeast. More thunderstorms are likely to fire up over the next few hours.
HAZARDS TODAY… Damaging straight line winds and large hail are the two primary concerns in the strong/severe thunderstorms today. The tornado threat remains LOW, but not zero. We saw a sizable tornado affect Opelika, AL in Lee County yesterday evening and it occurred on a day very similar to today with a small tornado risk. Have a way to get the warnings this afternoon!
WHO IS INCLUDED… This severe thunderstorm watch includes ALL of our local counties: Escambia (AL), Conecuh, Butler, Covington, Monroe, Clarke, Washington, Mobile, Baldwin, Escambia (FL), Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa. If you’re in one of these counties, you have a risk of experiencing severe thunderstorms this afternoon capable of producing large hail and damaging wind gusts. An isolated tornado or two can’t be ruled out.
MULTIPLE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNINGS… At the time this video is being produced (12:20PM), multiple severe thunderstorm warnings are in effect for portions of Clarke County. Large hail and damaging wind gusts will be possible across Clarke County in the next several minutes. More rapid updates can be found in the RedZone Weather app (redzoneweather.com/app is the link for the free download).
MORE POP-UP STORMS THIS WEEK… I’ll have more details in the RedZone Weather app about your forecast in the days ahead (severe weather coverage gets priority), but basically it’s more of the same: Pop-up showers and thunderstorms primarily in the afternoon and evening hours with high temperatures in the 90s and lows in the 70s. The good news is this system that has caused the multiple rounds of severe weather this weekend will kick out overnight and we return to a more seasonal pattern on Monday.
APP… I can’t stress enough: Be sure to visit the Alerts tab (lower right corner) and tap the large, yellow Alert Settings button to customize the alerts you want to receive straight from me.
More updates in the RedZone Weather app in the hours ahead, unless we have tornado warnings. If tornado warnings are required, we will be back here on Facebook Live with the very latest.
Have a good afternoon!