HEAVY RAIN & STORMS LIKELY TODAY… Numerous showers and thunderstorms are expected across south Alabama and northwest Florida today as an area of low pressure slides by just to our south in the Gulf of Mexico. The overall severe weather risk is virtually zero for inland areas and very low for areas near the immediate coast. There is a high chance, at this point, that we will have no tornado warnings issued today into tonight. I caution, however, that the tornado risk would be a bit higher at the immediate coastline IF the warm front slides northward this evening. That’s a big IF at this point. The most likely scenario is that most areas have rain throughout the day. Let’s talk details…
HEAVY RAIN IS THE HEADLINE… This area of low pressure will produce heavy rain that could lead to a few instances of flash flooding today. Most spots will see a cool, general, non-severe-type rain. Some spots near the coast will pick up 2-3″ of rain over the next 24 hours, while most spots inland will recieve 1-2″ of rain. Intermittent rain is likely to continue into the evening and overnight hours before clearing out Friday morning.
VERY LOW SEVERE WEATHER RISK NEAR BEACHES… If you’re in Dauphin Island, Fort Morgan, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Perdido Key, Pensacola Beach, Gulf Breeze, Navarre, Mary Esther, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, or Destin, your severe weather risk remains very low. It’s not zero, but the overall risk of a tornado happening in any of these areas remains very low. The key in these areas will be if the warm front can move north into these areas. If that happens, the tornado risk would marginally increase. I’ll be watching trends throughout the day.
BASICALLY ZERO SEVERE RISK INLAND… If in or near Brewton, Atmore, Thomasville, Monroeville, Evergreen, Greenville, Andalusia, Opp, Bay Minette, Chatom, Butler, or Citronelle, your severe weather risk today into tonight is basically near zero. The storms that happen in these areas will be elevated in nature and very likely NOT severe.
LIVE STREAMING RADAR… Since this will be an active weather today with a very low-end risk of severe weather, we will stream live, uninterrupted radar coverage in the Radar tab of the RedZone Weather app starting later this morning. That’s when the radar is looping, but I’m not on camera. I’ll come on camera only if severe weather/tornado warnings happen.
APP ALERTS… Be sure to set up your customized alerts in the RedZone Weather app before this active weather! Check out the Alerts tab (lower right corner in the RZWeather app) and tap the large, yellow “Alert Settings” button to customize the alerts you’d like to receive straight from me.
CLEARING SKIES FRIDAY… The rain will exit from west to east throughout the morning on Friday. Most spots should be dry by 2PM on Friday afternoon. Vast majority of the high school football games across our region will be dry with temperatures in the 50s!
SUNNY, COOL WEEKEND AHEAD… Very fall-like conditions are expected this weekend. High temperatures will be near 70 with morning lows down in the 50s. A streak of nice, sunny days are expected Saturday through Wednesday of the upcoming week!
See all the details in your Thursday #rzw forecast video… Enjoy the day!