TORNADOES POSSIBLE OVERNIGHT ACROSS ALABAMA & NW FLORIDA
DON’T GET SO CAUGHT UP IN CONVECTIVE OUTLOOK COLORS… The national Storm Prediction Center (widely regarded as the best tornado forecasters in the world) continues to outlook our entire area in their Level 2 (out of 5) yellow risk zone valid for tonight into Sunday morning. The local National Weather Service forecast offices in Mobile and Birmingham think the threat is a bit higher than that and have placed parts of their coverage areas in a Level 3 orange/enhanced risk area. It really does not matter what areas are in what color zone by which agency, as the risk remains the same: A line of semi-discrete storms, capable of producing tornadoes, damaging wind, and hail will be move through in the overnight hours into Sunday morning.
RAIN & STORMS AT TIMES TODAY; SEVERE WEATHER TONIGHT… Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected today across south Alabama and northwest Florida. The showers and storms will likely be well under severe limits during the daytime hours. You will need the umbrellas and rain jackets close by, however. Not everyone gets wet today, but everyone will almost certainly have rain overnight into Sunday morning. High temperatures will peak around 84° this afternoon. Quite warm and humid for a mid-April day! That’s exactly what would be expected in advance of severe weather since we are in the warm, unstable sector.
NEW: SEVERE WEATHER TIMING… This has changed ever so slightly since last evening. The 12 hour window in which severe weather is most likely is from 1AM to 1PM Sunday, with the core risk being 4AM to Noon. Please keep in mind that is the “severe weather timing” and not RAIN timing. Rain is likely intermittently long before that timeframe. Scattered showers and storms under severe limits are possible on Saturday during the daytime and evening hours. The severe weather risk will ramp up after 10PM.
HAZARD POTENTIAL… Based on the latest high-resolution short-term model guidance, there is a chance that we could have a few tornadoes across west and central Alabama in the very early morning hours of Sunday. In addition to the tornado risk, damaging straight line winds will also be a major concern. Large hail and flash flooding will also be concerns as this line of semi-discrete storms moves by.
WE ALL NEED MULTIPLE WAYS TO GET TORNADO WARNINGS… I cannot stress this enough: You need to have multiple ways to be able to receive tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings *before* you go to sleep Saturday night. Nocturnal tornadoes are statistically quite deadly. NOAA Weather Radio is a great choice. There are good smartphone apps available designed to alert you in dangerous weather situations. Make sure you have Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) turned ON for each of your smartphones. Our free RedZone Weather app is a great supplement to all these things. redzoneweather.com/app is the link to download the free app. Once you have it downloaded, be sure to go into the Alerts tab and set up the specific alerts you want to receive straight from me.
DOWNLOAD THE REDZONE WEATHER APP… Don’t let your guard down this weekend until after our severe weather risk passes on Sunday. We all need to have away to get the urgent weather warnings, especially Sunday morning when the main risk happens. I’ll have updates as needed this weekend in the RedZone Weather app. redzoneweather.com/app is the link for the free download. Once you have the app downloaded to your iOS or Android device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab (bottom right corner of app) and then read the alert descriptions so you can pick the ones you want to receive. All of our alerts are currently handcrafted by me. Unlike other sources, we won’t send you a push notification unless there is something you need to know.
MORE STORMS POSSIBLE NEXT WEEK… We’ll get a few nice days on Monday and Tuesday before another round of potentially strong to severe thunderstorms moves by on Thursday of the upcoming week. Let’s get through this overnight and Sunday morning event then we will begin to focus on Thursday.
NEXT UPDATE… My next update here on Facebook will be posted this eveing with the very latest information unless warranted sooner. Until then, be sure to check with me in the RedZone Weather app or at redzoneweather.com for MANY more updates throughout the day.
See all the details and graphics in this special Saturday edition of the #rzw forecast video…