NICE THURSDAY; MULTIPLE ROUNDS OF STORMS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY… Mostly sunny skies this morning will give way to partly cloudy skies later today ahead of increasing rain chances overnight into Friday. High temperatures will be in the mid- to upper-80s today. Strong to severe storms along with heavy rain will be possible on Friday and into Saturday. Multiple waves of rain and storms will be possible. The strongest of the storms will be capable of producing damaging wind gusts, hail, and perhaps a few tornadoes.
SEVERE WEATHER TIMING – FRIDAY AND SATURDAY… Unfortunately, timing projections for the multiple rounds of severe storms on Friday and Saturday are far more uncertain than usual. Similar to what happened earlier this week, timing for each round depends largely on what happens with previous rounds of storms. We could have up to 3 separate rounds of storms from Friday early morning to Saturday evening. For now, it looks like the first round of storms will kick off on Friday morning and last until the early afternoon hours. Some (not all) of the model guidance shows another, significant round of storms happening Friday evening, although confidence in that idea is not particularly high. Another round of storms may happen on Saturday in the midday hours, but again, timing with the last batch of storms will largely depend on what happens on Friday in the first round(s) of storms. It is frustrating that this is not a “one and done” round of passing storms AND that timing is so dependent on each passing round of storms. The key message here is that everyone should have a way to hear urgent weather warnings Friday, Friday night, and on Saturday.
HEAVY RAIN & FLASH FLOODING CONCERNS… Not every community will have an all day rain on Friday or Saturday but there will be some communities that pick up quite a bit of rain. I am particularly concerned about parts of west Alabama where 3 to 5 inches of total rainfall through Saturday seems quite likely. Monroe, Clarke, and Washington counties have the highest risk of flash flooding through Saturday with a slightly lower (but not zero!) risk for counties to the south and east of there.
BETTER WEATHER COMING SUNDAY AND INTO NEXT WEEK… No storms are in the forecast for the daytime hours of Sunday. Mostly sunny skies will come back into our forecast for Sunday and into Monday as well. High temperatures will be in the 80s and near 90 each day with morning lows in the upper-60s.
TROPICAL UPDATE… The 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season kicks off in just a few weeks on Saturday, June 1. The National Hurricane Center has officially started issuing their routine Tropical Weather Outlooks which detail the potential formation of tropical storms. I will be including at least one paragraph about the tropics in each morning video discussion until the conclusion of hurricane season on November 30. Tropical storm formation is not expected in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, or the Atlantic Ocean over the next 5-7 days.
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 Alert Settings button to customize the alerts you would like to receive straight from me.
See all the details in your Thursday morning RedZone Weather forecast video. Have a great day!
