LEVEL 5 (OUT OF 5) HIGH RISK; REGIONAL TORNADO OUTBREAK EXPECTED… The Storm Prediction Center has upgraded parts of Alabama and Mississippi into their Level 5 (out of 5) HIGH RISK severe weather zone valid for Saturday, March 15 into Saturday night. This is only the third time since 2007 that part of our local area in southwest Alabama has had a Level 5 (out of 5) risk zone. The other two times happened in early 2021. Before that, it was the high risk day in March 2007 that produced the Enterprise, AL EF4 tornado that hit Enterprise High School. Parts of Clarke, Washington, and Wilcox counties, along with areas to the north near Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Livingston are now involved in the HIGH risk zone.
WE ALL HAVE A RISK – IT ISN’T *JUST* THE LEVEL 5 RISK… Please do not think that if you’re not included in the magenta/rare Level 5 (out of 5) risk that you’re “out of the woods.” That is not how this works, at all. The high risk is where the *greatest* potential exists for long track, violent tornadoes. This is a helpful reminder not to get TOO caught up in the specific risk level or color zone in the convective outlooks. While the risk of tornadoes IS higher in the higher risk zones, tornadoes can and do happen OUTSIDE of the highest risk zones with severe weather setups like what is expected on Saturday. Regardless of which color/risk level your specific community is involved with, it is critical that you are able to get warnings overnight, tomorrow, and into tomorrow night!
BE THE HERO… The National Weather Service has launched an awareness campaign entitled, “Be The Hero.” The truth is you can absolutely be a hero and inform those folks around you that pay no attention to the world of weather. I guarantee you (sadly) there are folks all around that have heard nothing about this severe weather threat setting up for Saturday. The way we combat that is to “be the hero” and let your friends and family know about this risk. Call them, text them, tag them, pass it along to them, I really don’t care HOW you tell your folks as long as we make as many folks aware of this risk as possible.
TORNADO WARNING POLICY… Any time there is an active tornado warning in effect for southwest Alabama or northwest Florida, we provide uninterrupted, live video coverage on Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and in the Live tab of the RedZone Weather app. Our detailed coverage commitment is outlined at redzoneweather.com/coverage. We are proud to cover all parts of Escambia (AL), Covington, Monroe, Conecuh, Baldwin, Mobile, Clarke, Washington, Butler, Escambia (FL), Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa counties. If you live in any locale in those counties, be sure to tune into our coverage whenever there is an active tornado warning!
SET UP APP ALERTS… We send quite a bit of Low-Level Alerts in our RedZone Weather app. The app is totally free for you! redzoneweather.com/app is the link where you see the download links to your respective app store for iOS and for Android devices. Once you have the app downloaded to your smartphone or tablet device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.
NEXT UPDATE… I will have updates posted throughout the afternoon, as needed, in the RedZone Weather app. My next detailed discussion will be posted this evening.
