HEAVY RAIN & STORMS ON SATURDAY EVENING… Saturday looks to be quite wet across south Alabama and northwest Florida with a significant period of heavy rain (and potentially a few thunderstorms) expected. An area of low pressure will move very near or just to the north of our local coastline, ushering in very high rain chances for Saturday afternoon and evening. There could be a few stronger storms near the coast, but the severe weather threat is highly conditional. The big weather story this weekend will be heavy rain that could lead to flash flooding. Before we get to Saturday, we go through somewhat of a transition today with cloud coverage and temperatures increasing. Let’s talk details…
MAINLY DRY LOCALLY TODAY… Most of the rain/showers will stay away from our local area in south Alabama and northwest Florida through the daytime hours on this Friday. Cloud coverage will increase from west to east across the region. Temperatures will peak near 60 in most spots this afternoon. Many outside events are happening this evening, including local Christmas parades. I expect most spots locally to be DRY this evening with temperatures in the 40s and 50s. There could be a few isolated showers as early as this evening across west Alabama in Washington, Clarke, Marengo, and Choctaw counties, but even in those areas the rain chance is fairly low. Rain chances will be slightly higher today across central and north Alabama, especially later this evening.
RAIN CHANCES INCREASE SATURDAY MORNING… Scattered showers could happen across the region as early as early Saturday morning. While the more significant rain won’t likely happen until the afternoon and evening hours, I can’t rule out a few showers on Saturday in the morning hours. Have the rain gear handy!
HEAVY RAIN & STORMS LIKELY SATURDAY EVENING… The area of low pressure responsible for all the rain this weekend will slide by our area from west to east on Saturday evening. This is when rain chances will be highest. There could be a few strong thunderstorms, particularly near the Alabama and northwest Florida beaches. Higher atmospheric instability values could cause some of the storms to produce damaging winds or a brief, isolated tornado. We note shortly after this video was produced, the Storm Prediction Center introduced a Level 1 (out of 5), low-end marginal severe weather risk for areas near the immediate beaches. Widespread severe weather is NOT expected at this point. Rain could be quite heavy at times, however. Rain amounts are likely to be in the 2-3″ range across the region before rain ends on Sunday.
RAIN LINGERS SUNDAY; CLEARING MONDAY… There will be a few residual showers in place on Sunday right before sharply cooler air moves into our region behind a cold front. There is NO chance of ice/snow with this system as rain will end long before the freezing temps arrive. Looking ahead to next week, we’ll have another bout of cold air in place keeping our weather dry and sunny late Monday, Tuesday, into Wednesday.
See all the details in your Friday #rzw forecast video that is available on the RedZone Weather Facebook Page… Enjoy the day!