POWERFUL HURRICANE DELTA TO MOVE INTO GULF TOMORROW… Hurricane Delta is a compact, yet powerful, category 4 hurricane on this Tuesday evening. The center of the tiny, pinhole eye of Delta is located about 200 miles east-southeast of Cozumel and Cancun in Mexico. Cozumel and Cancun could be devastated overnight and into Wednesday morning by a direct hit of major hurricane impacts. The forecast track for Delta has changed somewhat today, and while this is good news for our local area in south Alabama and northwest Florida, we are not “out of the woods” just yet. More forecast changes will be possible, but it increasingly appears a Louisiana direct hit/landfall for Delta is expected. The cone of uncertainty has moved a bit to the west, thus at this moment, it appears the hurricane force winds will remain to our west across Louisiana and perhaps spreading into parts of southern Mississippi on Saturday. It is still too early to rule out tropical storm force winds locally, however IF forecast trends continue to shift the storm farther west, we may be able to do that as early as Thursday. A few Tuesday evening forecast notes are below.
7PM TUESDAY ADVISORY – HURRICANE DELTA… As of 7PM Tuesday, Hurricane Delta continues to be a powerful, category 4 hurricane with maximum winds of 145 mph. Minimum central pressure is at 956 millibars, meaning the rapid strengthening has paused and strength is holding steady.
UPDATED: POTENTIAL LOCAL IMPACTS… It cannot be stressed enough that IF the forecast path for Hurricane Delta shifts more to the east, that means that our local area in south Alabama and northwest Florida could have more impacts than are suggested right now. On the flip side, if Delta moves farther WEST than currently forecast, we would have LESS in the way of impacts. As of 7PM Tuesday, it appears that limited impacts will be possible across our local area, particularly in areas WEST of the Alabama River and west of Mobile Bay. There will be impacts (perhaps some being significant), but not the major impacts that folks in Louisiana and Mississippi will have to contend with this weekend. Big takeaway here: DO NOT let your guard down just yet!
UPDATED: GREATEST IMPACTS LOCALLY EXPECTED IN WEST ALABAMA… For our local area, the greatest impacts from Hurricane Delta are expected to happen in Mobile, Washington, Clarke, and Baldwin counties. Tropical storm force winds will be possible, in addition to a threat of heavy rain that could lead to flash flooding, tornadoes, storm surge at Mobile Bay, the Mississippi Sound, and the Alabama beaches, and potentially coastal flooding. Isolated tornadoes will be possible.
UPDATED: RISKS A BIT MORE UNCLEAR FOR THE REST OF US… For the reminder of us in locales in Monroe, Conecuh, Butler, Covington, Escambia (AL), Santa Rosa, Escambia (FL), Okaloosa, and Walton counties, the specific impacts from Hurricane Delta are a bit more unclear. Gusty (15-25 mph) winds are possible at times, heavy rain is expected at times, but the risk of tornadoes, flash flooding, and even storm surge at the northwest Florida beaches is a bit less certain. Remain on guard in these areas, but know that the greater risk is currently to your west. Good news!
APP ALERTS… 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.
NEXT UPDATE… I will have your next full forecast video and text discussion posted by 7:15AM on Wednesday morning. Until then, plenty more updates are coming in the RedZone Weather app. Have a nice Tuesday evening!