STRONG TO SEVERE STORMS POSSIBLE THURSDAY EVENING… Isolated tornadoes and damaging wind gusts will be concerns across south Alabama and northwest Florida on Thursday evening as a line of strong to severe thunderstorms approaches from the west. The latest model guidance suggests this will be a severe event that happens primarily well after sunset on Thursday. The most likely scenario, at this point, is a squall line (QLCS) that is strong to severe over west Alabama with a weakening trend as it moves across our region from west to east. We will all, yet again, need a way to receive urgent weather warnings on Thursday into Friday morning. That’s the summary. Here are a few more details…
LEVEL 2 RISK FOR EVERYONE, FOR NOW… The entire state of Alabama and all of northwest Florida are involved in the Level 2 (out of 5) risk zone to potentially see scattered instances of strong to severe storms on Thursday. For now, everyone has at least some risk of experiencing severe weather and heavy rain on Thursday. SPC will continue to modify this and outlook upgrades (or downgrades) will be possible over the next few days for specific areas.
MODES OF SEVERE WEATHER… While early model indications point to a system that will produce a squall line of strong to severe storms (QLCS – quasi-linear convective system as it’s known in the meteorology world), it’s too early to know whether supercell thunderstorms will be involved out ahead of the main line. Regardless, isolated tornadoes and damaging straight line winds will clearly be the two main hazards across our region as this quick hitting system moves by.
SEVERE WEATHER TIMING ON THURSDAY… Our first estimate of when severe weather is most likely to happen across our area is from 2PM on Thursday to 2AM on Friday. We will start to get more specific with that timeframe over the next few days. Be sure to check back with me tomorrow and on Wednesday for the very latest.
LINGERING SHOWERS FRIDAY; NICE WEEKEND AHEAD… While a few showers may linger into Friday morning, Easter weekend looks absolutely great. High temperatures will be near 80° on both Saturday and on Sunday with overnight lows in the mid-50s. Pleasant!
APP… Be sure to download the RedZone Weather app if you haven’t already. redzoneweather.com/app is the link for the free download. Once you have the app downloaded to your iOS or Android device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab (lower right corner of app) then tap the large, yellow “Alert Settings” button to customize the alerts you want to get straight from me.
Have a good evening!