MANY SHOWERS & STORMS AROUND TODAY… Thunderstorms will be numerous, “loud and proud” at times, and produce copious amounts of rainfall that could lead to scattered instances of flash flooding across south Alabama and northwest Florida today. The overall risk of severe weather is low and any severe weather that does happen will be damaging straight line wind gusts and/or small hail, as the tornado risk remains extremely low/almost nil. A Flash Flood Watch continues for many counties across our area until Thursday evening. Expect heavy rain off and on throughout the day on this first day of August! That’s the summary, here are the details…
THUNDERSTORMS TO BE STRONG, BUT LIKELY NOT SEVERE… While there are a few showers and storms already on radar this morning, the core of the storm action will happen today between 10AM and 4PM. Cloud-to-ground lightning will be a major concern today. Please remember, if you’re close enough to a storm that you can hear thunder, you’re close enough to be struck by lightning. Storms will produce heavy rain that could lead to flash flooding, lots of lightning, gusty winds, and maybe even small hail in isolated cases. If a storm briefly ramps up to severe levels (when a severe thunderstorm warning is required), that means that there is a liklihood that the storm is producing 58mph wind gusts and/or 1″ hail. Again, I expect the warnings to be the anomoly today and not the trend. There’s no upper support for tornadoes, although I wouldn’t be shocked if we observe some waterspouts in the storms today in the Gulf.
FLASH FLOOD WATCH CONTINUES… Every one of our local counties is included in the Flash Flood Watch valid until 7PM on Thursday MINUS Clarke, Washington, and Choctaw counties. This means the following counties ARE included: Escambia (AL), Conecuh, Butler, Covington, Monroe, Mobile, Baldwin, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, and Escambia (FL). Scattered instances of flash flooding will be possible in these counties throughout the day and into the overnight hours. Please do not drive a vehicle over a water-covered roadway… Too many people perish across the United States because of this totally preventable sitaution.
MORE RAIN THURSDAY & FRIDAY… Waves of heavy rain and storms will continue moving in from the southwest through Friday. Rain chances begin to lessen for the weekend as we return to a 30-50% chance of rain for Saturday and for Sunday.
HIGH TEMPERATURES LOWER TODAY… One positive thing, in addition to the beneficial rainfall for our area, is that temperatures will likely be supressed to around 80 degrees in most spots today due to all of the cloudcover and rain in place over our area. Thursday should be similar with a high temperature in the low-80s before temperatures shoot back up for the weekend to around 90.
TROPICS QUIET… No tropical storm formation is expected over the next 5-7 days.
RADAR CHECK… Feel free to check the radar throughout the day at redzoneweather.com/radar or in the Radar tab (lower left tab) here in the RedZone Weather app. I’ve got all the forecast details/graphics for you in your Wednesday #rzw forecast video that will be posted shortly here in the RZWeather app… Enjoy the day!