ALL CLEAR FOR OUR LOCAL AREA… After almost 17 hours of a significant risk of severe weather, it is a joyous moment to be able to give all parts of southwest Alabama and northwest Florida west of Destin an ALL CLEAR as of 4:30AM. The threat of tornadoes and severe storms has ended in our local area. If you are in any part of these counties, you get an all clear: Escambia (AL), Covington, Monroe, Conecuh, Baldwin, Mobile, Clarke, Washington, Butler, Escambia (FL), Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa.
Strong to severe storms will be possible in parts of southeast Alabama and the Florida Panhandle over the next few hours before the severe weather risk ramps up in parts of Georgia and the Carolinas later today.
THE TORNADO OUTBREAK OF MARCH 17, 2021… Numerous tornado warnings happened on Wednesday across the Deep South. I am counting 15 confirmed tornado reports just in the state of Alabama on the Storm Prediction Center LSR (Local Storm Report) website. 2 tornado-related injuries happened in Clarke County near Campbell Landing Road. One home was totally destroyed by a tornado in Clarke County and 4 others were damaged. There are many areas with trees down in west-central Alabama due to the tornadoes yesterday. March 17, 2021 (a very rare Level 5 out of 5 risk day!) will be in our memories for years to come. Thankfully, no loss of life has been reported due to the tornadoes today. That is EXCELLENT news that really encourages me. That lets me know that the messaging and warnings of the weather enterprise seem to really be working. Good news!
My next forecast video will be posted in just a few hours at 7:15AM as we look ahead to nicer weather this weekend. See you then!