Another Steamy Day, Tracking the Tropics | First Alert Storm Team Morning Forecast 072016

[00:00:00]Well, we have a lot to talk about today, including tracking the tropics and we have a heat advisory today, so buckle up. We are going to be moving swiftly this morning. We've got Battleship Park under air specialty camera where it looks actually pretty nice to start a little bit breezy from the north, but all in all, we are pretty quiet. A big story today is going to be the heat. We are going to be in the mid 90s yet again today. Heat index values in Alabama and Northwest Florida likely 100 to 107. But if you are in our Mississippi counties, you are likely going to reach up to 110 for those feels like temperatures with just a little bit more humidity in place. Because of that, there is a heat advisory for Green, George, and Jackson counties from 10 to 7 today. Now, if you are in Alabama, Northwest Florida, you are just below that heat advisory criteria. We're talking a couple of degrees here. So, not too much difference across the News 5 neighborhood. Radar right now is clear, not tracking any rain, but as we get into the afternoon, scattered showers and thunderstorms will become possible yet again with the highest rain chances near our coast. Overall, a 50% chance.

[00:01:05]You need that green and Phillips umbrella today. And again, that mainly stretches the I 10 corridor where we are going to see that highest rainfall total. As we are work our way northward towards the highway 84 corridor, you are going to be a little bit less in the way of rain, a little bit more isolated in nature. Now, we are tracking tropical depression 2 here in the northeastern Gulf. This formed yesterday off of the coast of Florida. Now, this has been pretty stationary. It is now starting to move to the north and west here at 3 miles per hour. So, really not moving too quickly. And this remains disorganized this morning. It's getting some drier air filtering in at the mid levels. So, that's keeping the intensity down a little bit. And of course, it is moving very, very slowly. It is expected to continue to move slowly over the next couple of days here. It will likely become tropical storm Bertha later on today as we get a little bit more intensity here. Now, this track as of 4:00 a.m. did shift a little bit towards the north here. So, I'm going to zoom in a little bit closer for you. And yes, we can't rule out a potential landfall in our area sometime Tuesday into Wednesday. But most of our modeling does keep this relatively offshore, at least the center of circulation. And because of that, and some drier air mixing in, at least rainfall, it's not expected to be a complete wash out from this system.

[00:02:25]But main impacts are going to start tomorrow and last into Wednesday as this likely passes to our south, but could our coastline here as tropical storm Bertha. Now, new information from the hurricane center. We do have tropical storm watches in place all the way into northwest Florida. Now, that was in place yesterday. What's new is this was expanded into Mobile and Baldwin County.

[00:02:48]So, tropical storm force winds are possible, especially near that coastline. NHC giving us a medium chance that's 35 miles hour or greater. We talked about rainfall. Not expecting too much between 1 and three inches of rain with just periods of heavy rainfall here and there. And that's because the center of circulation is expected to stay offshore. We're also looking at a little bit of drier air mixing into our area.

[00:03:13]Of course, anytime there's anything in the Gulf, we're going to have those marine impacts. So, we've got a high risk for rip currents. We've got gusty winds. We've got rough surf that's going to be building through tomorrow and the potential for a little bit of coastal flooding, especially if you are near that coastline and lowlying areas. So, over the next seven days, rain chances aren't as high as you would expect with a tropical system because of that drier air and most of that staying offshore.

[00:03:38]But, as we get into Thursday, Friday, this will move west. We'll be in our rearview mirror and we'll go back to more of a tical