DAMAGE OVERNIGHT IN ANDALUSIA; RAIN & STORMS AT TIMES TODAY… Strong storms around 2:15AM this morning caused part of a roof to be blown off of the former Southeast Alabama Gas District building (now ALDOT) in Andalusia. Two houses were also struck by lightning in the Andalusia area, one of which experienced a house fire. Warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico continues to surge into our region on this Monday. We will maintain fairly high (60-70%) rain chances throughout the day as scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected. Loud thunder is possible at times and cloud-to-ground lightning will clearly be the biggest concern in the stronger storms today. Widespread severe weather, however, is NOT expected locally. Rain chances will remain elevated this evening, overnight, and into Tuesday. Let’s look at your forecast details.
WHY ALL THE RAIN THIS WEEK? The cold front that moved through our area on Saturday (that was partially responsible for the development of the severe line of storms that moved across our area) stalled out in the Gulf and over the Florida Peninsula and lifted northward as a warm front late yesterday. Our region is now firmly entrenched in the warm sector south of the frontal boundary, allowing warm, humid, Gulf air to move northward and provide support for showers and thunderstorms. The Storm Prediction Center maintains our local area in their General Thunderstorms zone, which is the “level” below the low-end risk level. This means that widespread severe weather is NOT expected today. High temperatures on this Monday will be in the low- to mid-70s.
MORE SHOWERS AND STORMS THROUGH WEDNESDAY… Our weather pattern will essentially be on repeat through Wednesday. High temperatures will be in the 70s with morning lows in the low- to mid-60s. Rain and storms will be possible each day across the region. We probably won’t have an “all day washout” either day, but there will be rain and storms around. Severe weather is not expected locally through Wednesday. Keep the rain gear handy!
SHOWERS POSSIBLE THURSDAY AND FRIDAY… More rain is expected at times on Thursday and Friday as temperatures edge downward just a bit. High temperatures will drop to around the 70 degree mark as opposed to midweek when highs will be in the mid- to upper-70s.
COLD FRONT SLATED FOR SATURDAY PASSAGE… Much cooler air will arrive on Sunday after a cold front passes across our region. Before that happens, we may have a few thunderstorms to contend with on Saturday. I suspect that the Storm Prediction Center will introduce a Level 1 out of 5 “marginal risk” of strong storms later in the week to account for a low-end severe weather probability. Parameters are not currently supportive of widespread severe storms on Saturday, at this point. I’ll keep watching trends this week and bring you the very latest.
APP… redzoneweather.com/app is the link where you can download the free RedZone Weather app. We post brief updates throughout each day in the app, keeping you up-to-date about the latest happenings in weather across south Alabama and northwest Florida. Once you have the free app downloaded to your iOS or Android device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab (lower right corner) then tap the large, yellow Alert Settings button to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.
See all the details in your Monday #rzw forecast video. Have a great day!
