FEW STORMS POSSIBLE SATURDAY EVENING; SNOW NOT EXPECTED LOCALLY… Heavy rain and thunderstorms will be possible on Saturday, primarily in the afternoon and evening hours, as a dynamic, upper-level disturbance moves across the Deep South. While rain and storms will be possible (including a low-end risk of a few stronger storms closer to the immediate coast), accumulating snow and mixed precipitation are not expected across south Alabama and northwest Florida. If you are looking for snow, you’ll probably have to go to areas north of Birmingham or farther northeast into the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Locally, gusty winds and perhaps a brief tornado or two may happen in coastal Alabama or northwest Florida on Saturday. The main window for any severe weather issues will happen in the late afternoon and early evening hours. A few more Friday evening forecast notes are below.
SEVERE WEATHER TIMING – SATURDAY EVENING… 2PM to 10PM will be the eight hour window on Saturday evening when strong to severe thunderstorms will be possible across parts of northwest Florida and coastal Alabama. It should be emphasized this is a conditional risk, meaning there is a real chance all of our local communities won’t have any severe weather issues.
MAIN CONCERN: GUSTY WINDS & PERHAPS A BRIEF TORNADO OR TWO… This is a very low-end risk of severe storms setting up for Saturday P.M. Could a tornado or two happen near the coast? Yes. That is a possibility. However, odds are IF any severe storms happen, the main concern will be gusty winds in the stronger storms that could topple a few trees. The overall setup simply is not too impressive to support severe storms. Again, a remote chance, yes. A significant chance of severe storms, NO.
SNOW & MIXED PRECIP MOST LIKELY NORTH OF BIRMINGHAM… The upper-level low pressure area responsible for the potential for noisy storms in our local area on Saturday evening is also responsible for a potential winter storm that could bring snow, freezing rain, and sleet to areas to our north and east on Saturday into Sunday. Right now, the greatest chance of snow and frozen precipitation looks to happen in areas north of Birmingham, Alabama. Huntsville, Cullman, Hamilton, Muscle Shoals, Russellville, Moulton, Decatur, Boaz, Scottsboro, Fort Payne, Mentone, Gadsden, and Athens in the northern part of Alabama have the greatest chance tomorrow of experiencing snow or mixed precipitation. Temperatures are expected to be too warm for any wintry precipitation across south Alabama and northwest Florida.
APP… If you haven’t already downloaded the RedZone Weather app, now is a great time to do that. redzoneweather.com/app is the link to the free download. Once you have the RZW app installed on your iOS or Android device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab to turn on the specific notifications you’d like to receive. All notifications are handcrafted by me. No automation and we promise not to bug you!
I will have updates posted throughout the weekend in the RedZone Weather app. If we happen to have any tornado warnings locally, of course we will go into our nonstop, live coverage. Have a nice weekend!