ISOLATED STRONG STORMS POSSIBLE SATURDAY… The Storm Prediction Center has included all of south Alabama and northwest Florida in their Level 1 (out of 5) marginal severe weather risk zone valid for the daytime hours of Saturday. Isolated tornadoes and damaging straight line winds will be the main concerns in the stronger storms that happen. This will be a linear storm threat that moves in from Mississippi, most likely in the late morning or early afternoon hours on Saturday. If tornado warnings are required for any part of our area, we will go LIVE per our regular coverage commitment to you. That is the summary, below are the details…
MARGINAL SEVERE WEATHER RISK FOR SATURDAY… ALL of our local area in south Alabama and northwest Florida is included in the Level 1 (out of 5) marginal severe weather risk zone valid for Saturday as defined by the Storm Prediction Center. In addition, all zones in southeast and central Alabama are included in the low-end risk zone. Basically everyone south of a line from Hamilton to Oneonta to Roanoke is included in this low-end risk, including Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Montgomery, Selma, Demopolis, Greenville, Troy, Dothan, Thomasville, Monroeville, Evergreen, Atmore, Brewton, Mobile, Fairhope, Pensacola, Destin, Panama City, and surrounding areas.
CONCERNS: BRIEF TORNADOES & DAMAGING WIND GUSTS… Most of the thunderstorms that move across our region on Saturday should be “tame,” but there could be a few, brief severe thunderstorms capable of producing an isolated tornado or a brief gust of damaging wind. This is a typical “high shear, low CAPE” winter severe weather setup for our local area, meaning that the “severe weather ingredients” are somewhat mismatched. The greater instability values will be near the Alabama and northwest Florida beaches with the greater wind/shear being to the north over our inland counties.
TIMING OF THE STORMS… Showers will increase in coverage across the region Saturday morning. The severe weather risk will start around 10AM and last until the line of storms moves east of our local area, most likely around 5PM. This means that during the daytime hours of Saturday, we need you to have a way to receive urgent weather warnings. Please keep this in mind especially if you’re going to be outside hunting or engaged in any activity away from your cell phone. I’ll have plenty of updates in the RedZone Weather app throughout the day on Saturday.
TORNADO WARNING POLICY… Anytime there is a tornado warning for any part of our 12 county primary coverage area, we stream uninterrupted severe weather coverage in the RedZone Weather app and on Facebook Live. See redzoneweather.com/coverage for more information about our coverage commitment. Covington, Butler, Conecuh, Escambia (AL), Monroe, Clarke, Washington, Mobile, and Baldwin counties are our commitment counties in south Alabama. Santa Rosa, Escambia (FL), and Okaloosa counties are the commitment counties in northwest Florida.
MUCH COLDER SUNDAY… After the passage of the cold front that is causing this low-end severe weather potential, significantly colder air will move into our region from the northwest late Saturday into Sunday. While temperatures will likely not be AS cold as initially indicated, our entire region will likely plunge into the 20s by Monday morning. The daytime hours of Monday look to be a bit warmer than we initially expected as well. High temperatures on Monday will surge into the 50s.
APP ALERTS… Be sure to download the free RedZone Weather app (redzoneweather.com/app is the link for the free download) in your respective (iOS & Android) app store. I’ll have plenty of updates throughout the day on Saturday as we track the storms moving in from the west. Once you have the app downloaded, visit the Alerts tab (bottom right corner) and tap the large, yellow “Alert Settings” button to customize the alerts you’d like to receive straight from me. I’ll be sending quite a few Low-Level Alerts over the next few days.
Let me know if you have any questions. My next #rzw forecast video will be posted by 7:15AM on Friday morning here on Facebook and in the RedZone Weather app. Enjoy your evening!