HURRICANE DELTA TO MAKE LANDFALL LATER TODAY; TORNADO RISK LOCALLY THRU SATURDAY… The center point of large Hurricane Delta is expected to move onshore this afternoon or this evening in southwest Louisiana. Delta brings rain and the potential for tornadoes to our local area in south Alabama and northwest Florida today into Saturday. The overall tornado risk will be greatest tonight through early Saturday afternoon. All of your Friday forecast details are below.
WHAT TO EXPECT – TODAY INTO TONIGHT… Rain and storms will pop up this afternoon into this evening. Some of the storms could be on the strong side, producing quite a bit of lightning. The overall tornado risk will increase later this evening after sunset. High temperatures today will be in the low-80s.
TORNADOES POSSIBLE TONIGHT INTO SATURDAY… Tornadoes will be possible tonight into Saturday across our region, particularly across west Alabama. Hurricane-induced tornadoes generally do not last very long and can be hard to detect by radar since they’re generally formed by low-topped showers and thunderstorms. If your specific area goes under a tornado warning today, tonight, or Saturday, please heed the warning and get sheltered quickly! We will provide uninterrupted live video coverage if or when tornado warnings are issued for our local area.
LOCAL TORNADO RISK – TIMING… The tornado risk for our local area will extend from 6PM Friday to 6PM on Saturday with the greatest risk being from 1AM to 1PM on Saturday. Again, we are not expecting widespread, large tornadoes. We ARE expecting the potential for a few, brief, spin-up tornadoes in our local area as the core of Hurricane Delta passes to our west.
SEVERE IMPACTS FROM HURRICANE DELTA IN LOUISIANA TODAY… Hurricane Delta will move ashore today along the southwestern coastline of Louisiana, where severe hurricane impacts are expected. If you, by some reason, know someone that received an evacuation order and did not leave in those areas, I would suggest pleading with them to get OUT, especially if they’re in a flood zone or storm surge prone area. The storm surge could end up being the biggest issue for Louisiana, potentially, and the National Hurricane Center has described the potential storm surge as “life-threatening.” The stretch of coastline from Cameron to Intracoastal City appears to be in extreme danger from this dangerous storm surge! High winds are expected in areas previously ravaged by Hurricane Laura only a few weeks ago. This includes areas near Lake Charles. Areas near Lafayette, LA are also under an extreme threat of wind!
DELTA CLEARS OUT SATURDAY NIGHT… The remnant circulation of Hurricane Delta will be well to our north by Saturday night into Sunday. This means that rain chances will slowly come to an end across the region on Saturday into Saturday night. There could be a few showers around on Sunday, but we will trend drier for the beginning of the week.
MULTIPLE COLD FRONTS COMING NEXT WEEK… Multiple cold fronts are slated to move through our region in the week ahead. The first front will move by on Tuesday, knocking temperatures down ever so slightly to highs in the low-80s by Wednesday. A secondary, more potent front will arrive on Thursday or Friday, knocking down high temperatures into the upper-70s with lows in the 50s once again by the end of the upcoming week. No severe weather issues in sight after we finish with Hurricane Delta.
20% CHANCE OF TROPICAL DEVELOPMENT IN ATLANTIC… The National Hurricane Center has highlighted a tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic Ocean that now has a 20% chance of becoming a tropical storm as it moves westward over the tropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean. From NHC: “A large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms located several hundred miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands is associated with a tropical wave. This disturbance is expected to move westward to west-northwestward at about 15 mph, and environmental conditions could be conducive for some gradual development this weekend or early next week while the system is over the tropical Atlantic well east of the Lesser Antilles. Upper-level winds are forecast to become unfavorable for development by the middle of next week.”
TORNADO WARNING POLICY… Any time there is an active tornado warning in effect for southwest Alabama or northwest Florida, we provide uninterrupted, live video coverage on Facebook Live and in the RedZone Weather app. Our detailed coverage commitment is outlined at redzoneweather.com/coverage. We are proud to cover all parts of Escambia (AL), Covington, Monroe, Conecuh, Baldwin, Mobile, Clarke, Washington, Butler, Escambia (FL), Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa counties. If you live in any locale in those counties, be sure to tune into our coverage whenever there is an active tornado warning!
APP ALERTS… redzoneweather.com/app is the link where you can download the free RedZone Weather app. We post brief updates throughout each day in the app, keeping you up-to-date about the latest happenings in weather across south Alabama and northwest Florida. Once you have the free app downloaded to your iOS or Android device, be sure to visit the Alerts tab (lower right corner) then tap the large, yellow Alert Settings button to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.
My next detailed update will be posted later today unless we need live tornado warning coverage before that. Until then, plenty more updates will be posted throughout the day in the RedZone Weather app. Have a nice Friday!