LAURA STRENGTHENING IN SOUTHERN GULF; SCATTERED STORMS LOCALLY TODAY… Scattered rain and storms are likely at times on this Tuesday, particularly in the afternoon and evening hours, across south Alabama and northwest Florida. Marco made landfall last evening as a tropical storm near the Mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana and has since continued to degrade into a remnant circulation over the swamps and bayous of southeast Louisiana. Laura, on the other hand, has emerged into the southern Gulf of Mexico and is now strengthening. Fortunately, for our local area, direct impacts are expected to be very limited. High waves and rip currents will continue to be a concern at the Alabama and northwest Florida beaches, however major impacts due to Laura are not expected locally. Big impacts ARE expected for parts of the western half of Louisiana and east Texas. There is growing chance Laura will make landfall somewhere near Houston, Beaumont, or Lake Charles as a powerful, major hurricane. Let’s look at your Tuesday forecast details.
LAURA TO MOVE TO OUR WEST… Model consensus has really come into better agreement today suggesting the center of Laura will move toward eastern Texas or western Louisiana. That means that local impacts in south Alabama and northwest Florida are now much less likely to happen. Unfortunately, for our friends to our west in Louisiana and Texas, this is setting up to be a potentially dangerous situation as Laura could become a major hurricane in the next few days before landfall. If you know someone in the greater Houston area, east Texas, Lake Charles, or southwestern Louisiana, I would let them know that this has the makings of a serious situation for that area.
POTENTIAL LOCAL IMPACTS – LAURA… Local impacts in south Alabama and northwest Florida seem unlikely as the core of what will likely be Hurricane Laura will be well to our west midweek. One thing we will need to monitor is what happens to Laura once the system is well inland over Arkansas and Tennessee. Sometimes tropical systems moving that far north and then back to the east can act as a catalyst for tornadoes to happen across parts of the Deep South. That is a possibility we’ll be watching for late Thursday into Friday. For now, that potential looks fairly unlikely.
REMAINDER OF ATLANTIC IS QUIET… Outside of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean are quiet with no new tropical storms expected to develop over the next 3-5 days. That certainly is some welcome news!
SCATTERED STORMS OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS… Our weather will remain remarkably consistent over the next 5-7 days now that we know with higher confidence that we won’t have direct local hurricane impacts. Scattered storms are expected in the afternoon and evening hours each day. High temperatures will be near 90 with morning lows in the 70s through the upcoming weekend.
APP… If you haven’t already, be sure to download the free RedZone Weather app to keep up with all the latest information on the world of weather in south Alabama and northwest Florida. 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) and tap the large, yellow Alert Settings button to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.
See all the details in your Tuesday #rzw forecast video. Have a great day!