FINALLY! HURRICANE SEASON HAS ENDED… The hyperactive 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season is over. After setting all kinds of records, including the most number of tropical storms ever recorded in a single season, I think we all can say: Good riddance.

LOCAL AREA HAD IMPACTS FROM 6 DIFFERENT STORMS… South Alabama and northwest Florida has varying levels of direct local impacts from seven of the named storms in the 2020 season. Tropical Storm Cristobal formed on the first official day of the hurricane season on June 1 before making landfall several days later in Louisiana. Cristobal caused one tornado warning locally in Baldwin County on Sunday, June 7 at 8AM. July was fairly quiet locally ahead of an increasingly busy August and September. Hurricane Laura made landfall to our west in Louisiana, sparing the local area of major impacts. Hurricane Marco caused rain across our region as the storm made landfall just to our southeast near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Hurricane Sally happened in mid-September and made landfall 16 years almost to the hour after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Sally was a devastating storm to many local communities, causing damage at the coast and farther inland. Tropical Storm Beta made landfall in Texas, but its remnants moved through our area and caused a tornado warning in parts of Escambia (FL) and Santa Rosa counties. Hurricane Delta followed Beta only a week later, causing an entire overnight severe weather event with numerous tornado warnings. Only about 10 days later, Hurricane Zeta made landfall in Louisiana before causing extensive, widespread damage across southwest Alabama, especially for our inland zones. Zeta also caused several tornado warnings locally.

THANK YOU FOR WATCHING OUR HURRICANE COVERAGE… Thank you to each and every person who watched our long, extensive hurricane coverage this year. I am proud to say we never missed even one tornado warning prompted by all of the storms. Thank you also to our incredible RedZone Weather sponsors who make our weather coverage possible on good weather days and more importantly, on bad weather days. They are the good folks who empower us to deliver the coverage you have come to count on.

My next forecast video will be posted by 7:15AM on Tuesday. See you then!

COLD WEEK STARTS TODAY; FREEZE WARNING TONIGHT… Cloudy skies this morning will give way to clearing skies later today, allowing temperatures to plummet tonight. High temperatures on this Monday will struggle to get into the 50s in many spots as cold, dry air moves into our region. The next two nights will feature temperatures below the freezing mark. This week will be the coldest week our area has had in quite some time with highs in the 50s through at least Wednesday. Today is also the final day of the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Below are all of your Monday morning forecast details.

FREEZING TEMPERATURES OVERNIGHT… The coldest night we have had in quite some time will happen overnight. A Freeze Warning is in effect for much of our local area. We will have 3-5 hours of temperatures near or just below 32 degrees tonight ahead of an even longer stretch of below freezing temps for Wednesday morning.

COLD ON TUESDAY; HARD FREEZE TUESDAY INTO WEDNESDAY… Tuesday will likely be the coldest day of the week with high temperatures that struggle to reach 60 degrees. Hard freeze conditions (with freezing temperatures in place for multiple hours) are possible for Wednesday morning. Overnight lows will be in the mid-20s across inland areas of south Alabama by Wednesday morning. Temperatures will be in the upper-20s and low-30s closer to the coast.

NEXT RAIN CHANCE ON THURSDAY… Rain will return to our local area on Thursday into Friday. Temperatures will likely be well above the freezing mark, thus eliminating any possibility of mixed precipitation or snow. High temperatures on Thursday into Friday will be near 60 with morning lows in the 40s on Friday morning.

WEEKEND LOOKS DRY… Preliminary model data for the weekend suggests dry conditions will prevail. Mostly sunny skies are expected for Saturday and for Sunday. High temperatures look to be in the mid- to upper-50s with morning lows in the upper-30s.

TODAY IS LAST DAY OF ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON… Finally! Today is the final day of the hyperactive 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season. The season produced a record-breaking 30 named tropical storms, including several storms that directly affected or sideswiped our local area. Hurricane Sally will forever be remembered as the storm that moved so slowly over the northern Gulf, ultimately causing widespread damage across the southeastern part of our local area. Hurricane Zeta, on the other hand, caused widespread damage across the northwestern part of the area, bringing hurricane force wind gusts to Clarke and Washington counties.

SUBTROPICAL DEVELOPMENT IN EASTERN ATLANTIC… You didn’t think the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season would go out peacefully, right? In classic 2020 fashion, a subtropical area of low pressure exists just east of the Iberian Peninsula on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean from America. The National Hurricane Center gives this area of disturbed weather a 40% chance of becoming a subtropical storm before moving slowly to the south over the next few days. Regardless of if development happens, this system will never come remotely close to directly affecting the continental United States.

TORNADO WARNING COVERAGE YESTERDAY… Thanks to everyone who watched our one round of tornado warning coverage that happened yesterday afternoon. The tornado warning was in effect for parts of southern Baldwin County, including areas near Elberta and Miflin. I have heard of no damage reports from this area as of this morning. Good news!

APP… Many updates will be posted throughout the day in the RedZone Weather app. redzoneweather.com/app is the link for the free download. Be sure to visit the Alerts tab (bottom right corner) and tap the large, yellow “Alert Settings” button to customize the alerts you’d like to receive from me. If you like a lot of info, be sure to toggle ON Low-Level Alerts.

See all the details in your Monday #rzw forecast video. Have a great start to your week!

SEVERE WEATHER RISK IS ENDING; COLD AIR MOVING IN… The risk of severe weather across south Alabama and northwest Florida is gradually ending. Occasional lightning and thunder cannot be completely ruled out over the next few hours, but the tornado risk is now much lower than it once was only a few hours ago. The Level 2 (out of 5) severe weather risk zone has been stripped out of our area and there is now a very low risk of a few stronger storms with the main concern being gusty winds. We will give a final all clear in a few hours in the RedZone Weather app, but please understand that vast majority of our local area is done for the day in terms of the severe weather risk. The lingering, low-end risk is concentrated primarily across northwest Florida.

COLD AIR IS ON THE WAY… Our focus will now increasingly shift to the very cold temperatures slated to happen across our area in the days and nights ahead. The coldest morning of this week will be Wednesday morning, but the attached graphic highlights the WIND CHILL values expected for tomorrow (Monday) night into Tuesday morning.

My next detailed forecast video will be posted by 7:15AM on Monday morning. Thank you to everyone who tuned in for our live tornado warning coverage earlier this afternoon. Have a great Sunday evening!