NICE WEDNESDAY; RAIN AND STORMS AHEAD… Today will be the last day featuring daytime hours with low rain chances for quite some time. Heavy rain and thunderstorms are possible as early as late this evening across south Alabama and northwest Florida. There could be a few strong storms involved late Thursday into early Friday. An area of low pressure will keep temperatures mild and rain chances high into 2019. Let’s talk details…
MAIN CONCERN: HEAVY RAIN… Yes, there is a low-end severe weather risk setting up for the late evening hours of Thursday into Friday morning. The bigger risk, however, will be heavy rain that could lead to flash flooding Thursday through Sunday. The latest Quantitative Precipitation Forecast shows much of Alabama and northwest Florida picking up 3-4″ of rain over the next 4 to 5 days, with isolated higher amounts being possible. This will create a situation where flash flooding could become potentially widespread by the weekend. I wouldn’t be shocked if Flash Flood Watches are needed.
FEW STRONG STORMS FRIDAY MORNING… The Storm Prediction Center has outlined our west Alabama counties in their Level 1 (out of 5) marginal severe weather risk zone valid for late Thursday into early Friday. For our local area: Mobile, Baldwin, Choctaw, Washington, Clarke, and Marengo counties are all included. A line of strong to potentially severe thunderstorms will be moving across southeast Mississippi late Thursday. This line will approach west Alabama in the overnight hours into Friday morning. Damaging wind gusts will be the main concern, and while the tornado risk will be very low, it won’t be zero. We’ll keep you posted about the storms in the RedZone Weather app.
WET WEEKEND AHEAD… Rain chances will remain high into the weekend and ultimately into New Year’s Eve. It is too early to say whether rain/storms will be an issue at the stroke of midnight as we enter 2019, but that is a real possibility at this point. You’ll need to keep the rain gear handy basically over the next week as a wet weather pattern remains in place.
See all the details in your Wednesday #rzw forecast video… Have a great day!
