SEVERE WEATHER RISK THROUGH EARLY EVENING… Scattered showers and thunderstorms continue to develop and move northeast across south Alabama and northwest Florida on this Saturday morning. So far, we have had no severe thunderstorm or tornado warnings. There have been several rotating thunderstorms around this morning, but none strong enough to warrant a warning just yet. There have been multiple reports of damage in the Ensley area near Pensacola this morning, likely due to damaging straight line winds associated with a thunderstorm that moved by around 5:45AM. More storms are likely to develop in the hours ahead. Please have a way to receive warnings over the next few hours!
LEVEL 2 RISK CONTINUES… All of south Alabama and northwest Florida remains involved in a Level 2 (out of 5) severe weather risk over the next several hours. This means that scattered severe storms will be possible. The main concerns will be isolated, brief tornadoes and damaging straight line winds.
DAMAGE REPORTS IN ENSLEY… If you have the RedZone Weather app, you probably saw our post this morning at 6:07AM discussing a strong storm moving into the Pace area from the southeast from the Pensacola metro. This storm (with no official weather warning in effect) caused a roof to be partially torn off of Lincoln Park Elementary School. There also were multiple reports of tree limbs down in the area. No word just yet on if this was a brief tornado or damaging wind gusts.
CONDITIONAL SEVERE WEATHER THREAT… We have a “mismatch of ingredients” in place today, with the greatest shear/wind in the atmosphere moving away from the area this morning. The greatest atmospheric instability values will happen this afternoon into the early evening across the region. This means that while there is a chance that we could come through this severe weather event mostly unscathed with little to no issues, there is also a chance that we could see powerful thunderstorms around this afternoon IF they can form. In other words, there has to be forcing to cause thunderstorms to form and that is the limiting factor today. IF storms can fire up, they will likely be strong to severe. That’s the big question mark over the next few hours.
FLASH FLOOD WATCH… It’s been a wet, soggy morning for most across our region this morning. The National Weather Service has continued the Flash Flood Watch for Covington, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, and Escambia (FL) counties valid until 6PM this evening. These are the areas that have the greatest risk of experiencing heavy rain that could lead to flash flooding over the next few hours.
APP… I’ll have plenty more updates over the next several hours here in the RedZone Weather app. Be sure to visit the Alerts tab (lower right corner of the app) if you have not already and then tap the large, yellow Alert Settings button to customize the alerts you’d like to receive straight from me.
Have a nice Saturday! Let me know if you have any weather-related questions.