ALL CLEAR FOR TODAY; TORNADO RISK IS OVER FOR OUR LOCAL AREA… Breathe a bit easier as the tornado risk is now over for today across southwest Alabama and northwest Florida in areas along and west of Destin, Crestview, and Opp. The Level 3 (out of 5) severe weather risk ended up verifying today with quite a few areas of wind damage and suspected tornado damage in Poarch, AL. Multiple confirmed tornadoes happened in northwest Florida this evening in parts of Okaloosa County near Holt and in Walton County near Ponce de Leon. Unfortunately, multiple people were injured this morning in the severe storm that moved through a mobile home community near Poarch. Two people remain in critical condition this evening due to storm-related injuries, per reporting from a local newspaper.
WIDESPREAD DAMAGE TODAY… Confirmed storm damage has happened in parts of Choctaw, Clarke, Escambia (AL), Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, and Covington counties today. Some reports detail trees being down while others (like the latebreaking report in Covington County) point to damage to a barn on Rockhole Bridge Road near AL55. Please let us know if you had any storm-related damage today! Our thoughts and prayers are with people who had any type of damage today. Damage in Poarch and in Holt really stands out as the worst damage of the day. While the tornado that happened at Holt had excellent lead time with plenty of warning, the storm that moved through Poarch did NOT have a tornado warning at the time damage happened. With that said, however, it remains to be seen whether a tornado or damaging straight line winds happened at Poarch. Regardless of which phenomenon caused the damage, some people unfortunately lost their respective homes and personal belongings. I certainly will have these folks on my mind in the days ahead.
MORE SEVERE STORMS NEXT WEEK… Definitely the last thing that all of us want to hear after today: Please be aware we may have more severe storms and tornadoes in parts of our area late Tuesday into Wednesday of the upcoming week. Let’s get through the rest of the day and take somewhat of a break and I will have a full rundown on this topic posted tomorrow (Saturday) morning.
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING; SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS… Thank you to the many thousands of folks who watched our long form, nonstop video coverage during the tornado warnings that happened earlier today. I know you have a choice of where to get your severe weather info and I am certainly gracious and thankful you choose to watch our coverage. Be sure to support our incredible RedZone Weather sponsors as they’re the folks who make our weather content possible on good weather days and more importantly, on bad weather days like what we had today. redzoneweather.com/sponsors is where you can see the list of our wonderful sponsors. PLEASE SUPPORT THEM!
Have a nice Friday night!