FORECAST RIGHT ON TRACK… RZW Exec members, good morning! The forecast for today has not changed: A few brief, spin-up tornadoes are possible today into tonight near the Alabama and northwest Florida beaches. There is no tornado risk for inland areas. Heavy rain is likely at times throughout the day into tonight across coastal AND inland areas. I’ll be posting the following forecast discussion publicly around 9:05AM with a Medium-Level Alert push notification here in the RZWeather app. Here is an exclusive preview for you…
MORNING SEVERE WEATHER UPDATE
STRONG STORMS POSSIBLE NEAR COAST THIS EVENING… There continues to be a low-end, marginal chance of a brief tornado or two near the immediate Alabama and northwest Florida beaches this evening into the overnight hours. The tornado risk this evening will be confined to the coast. Inland areas have no severe weather risk, as the air is more stable north of I-10. The big story for most of us throughout the day will be heavy rain.
ISOLATED TORNADOES POSSIBLE NEAR BEACHES… If you’re in Dauphin Island, Fort Morgan, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Perdido Key, Pensacola Beach, Gulf Breeze, Navarre, Mary Esther, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, or Destin, your severe weather risk remains very low. It’s not zero, but the overall risk of a tornado happening in any of these areas remains very low. The key in these areas will be if the warm front can move north into these areas. If that happens, the tornado risk would marginally increase. I’ll be watching trends throughout the day. Regardless of tornado development, heavy rain that could lead to instances of flash flooding will be happening throughout the day into tonight.
LITTLE TO NO SEVERE RISK INLAND… If in or near Brewton, Atmore, Thomasville, Monroeville, Evergreen, Greenville, Andalusia, Opp, Bay Minette, Chatom, Butler, or Citronelle, your severe weather risk today into tonight is basically near zero. The storms that happen in these areas will be elevated in nature and very likely NOT severe. Heavy rain will still happen intermittently in these inland communities throughout the day into tonight.
COVERAGE POLICY… Long-time viewers and readers know that anytime we have a tornado warning issued for any part of our 12 county primary coverage area (defined here) we go LIVE across our platforms, bringing you the very latest.
LIVE STREAMING RADAR… Since this will be an active weather today with a very low-end risk of severe weather, we will stream live, uninterrupted radar coverage in the Radar tab of the RedZone Weather app starting later this morning around 11:45AM. That’s when the radar is looping, but I’m not on camera. I’ll come on camera only if severe weather/tornado warnings happen.
APP ALERTS… Be sure to set up your customized alerts in the RedZone Weather app before warnings are issued! Check out the Alerts tab (lower right corner in the RZWeather app) and tap the large, yellow “Alert Settings” button to customize the alerts you’d like to receive straight from me.
UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY… I’ll have plenty of updates in the RedZone Weather app and on Twitter in the hours ahead. Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great Thursday!