STRONG STORMS & HEAVY RAIN POSSIBLE THURSDAY IN P.M. HOURS… Heavy rain, flash flooding, and perhaps even a few strong to severe thunderstorms will be possible on Thursday as a cold front approaches from the northwest. A few tornadoes may be possible as well, particularly during the evening hours. The Storm Prediction Center has included parts of southwest Alabama, northwest Florida, southern Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana in their low-end, Level 1 (out of 5) severe weather risk zone valid for Thursday. Before we get there, scattered showers will be possible on Wednesday, mainly in the afternoon and evening hours. Rain chances will increase Wednesday night into Thursday morning ahead of the severe weather potential Thursday in the P.M. hours. A few more Tuesday evening forecast notes are below.
MULTIPLE HAZARDS POSSIBLE THURSDAY… Heavy rain that could lead to flash flooding will be the main hazard on Thursday with most spots across our local area likely to pick up between 1″ and 3″ of rainfall in total. If storms train over the same areas, flash flooding may become an issue rather quickly. Isolated higher rainfall amounts will be possible. While parameters aren’t “sky high” for the tornado potential, the atmosphere will be “unstable enough” to potentially support a tornado or two on Thursday, mainly from 6PM to midnight as storms move in from the west. Damaging straight line winds will also be possible in the stronger storms.
SEVERE WEATHER TIMING – THURSDAY EVENING… The 12 hour window for strong to severe thunderstorms in our local area across southwest Alabama and northwest Florida will be from 2PM Thursday to 2AM Friday. Core window for storms will likely be 6PM to midnight.
GREATEST CHANCE OF HAZARDS OVER WEST ALABAMA… Storms will gradually be weakening while moving from west to east across our area, meaning the hazard potential will be greatest (albeit still on the lower-end of the risk scale) across southwest Alabama, particularly in parts of Washington, Choctaw, Marengo, Clarke, Mobile, and Baldwin counties.
APP… If you haven’t already, be sure to download the free RedZone Weather app to keep up with all the latest information on the world of weather in south Alabama and northwest Florida. redzoneweather.com/app is the link for the free download. Once you have the app downloaded to your iOS or Android device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab (lower right corner) and tap the large, yellow Alert Settings button to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.
I will have a detailed forecast video and text discussion posted by 7:15AM tomorrow morning. Have a nice Tuesday evening!