MIDDAY NOTES ON TD14/MICHAEL & COOLER AIR ALERT… After the passage of what will likely be Tropical Storm or Hurricane Michael, cooler air will invade south Alabama and northwest Florida later this week. High temperatures will drop back into the low 80s by Friday, setting the stage for fantastic football weather for Friday Night Lights and college football across the state. Overnight lows will be in the 50s by Saturday morning. Long-time viewers/readers know I generally don’t like to comment on data past the 7 day mark, but early indications point to high temps in the 70s potentially in 8-10 days. Much more uncertainty with that idea. A few midday notes on TD14/Michael…
– An Air Force Reserve Reconnaissance aircraft (the “Hurricane Hunters”) are investigating Tropical Depression 14 now. There’s a good chance that they’ll find surface-level winds exceeding 39mph, meaning we’ll probably (officially) have Tropical Storm Michael on the board this afternoon.
– No significant forecast changes to report as of midday. The latest thinking supports a northern Gulf Coast landfall midweek of what will likely be a strong tropical storm or a category 1 hurricane. Landfall could happen anywhere from Biloxi, Mississippi eastward to Cedar Key, Florida. The core of the guidance suggests a landfall is MOST likely along the northwest Florida coast somewhere from Navarre eastward to Port Saint Joe. As we’ve been profusely talking about over the last few days, this landfall point will determine A LOT as to what our local area will experience in terms of impacts.
– APP… Be sure to visit the Alerts tab in the RZW app (bottom right corner) and tap the large, yellow “Alert Settings” button to customize the alerts you’d like to receive straight from me. Also, you can always tap the Latest tab in the lower left corner to do a manual refresh of the app.
– Tropical Storm and/or Hurricane Watches will likely be posted for portions of our local coastline in the next 24-36 hours. My next video will be a LIVE update this afternoon. Be sure to join me for that as we dissect the latest information. See you then!