JB Elliott has decided to put personal interests ahead of everything and sneak out to a meeting!! Can people just not get their priorities in the right place!! But never fear, I’ve volunteered to pitch in and provide some updates while JB enjoys a little personal time!
The pressure center of Fay was still straddling the coastline approximately between Perry and Cross City on the northeast side of Apalachee Bay – or the Big Bend area of the Florida Panhandle. The center was about 60 miles southeast of Tallahassee.
A quick look at the Tallahassee observations showed about an inch of rain so far since the rain began around 9 am. Perry, about 50 miles southeast of Tallahassee, has recorded about double that amount since the rain started just before 1 am.
Lowest pressure for Fay seemed to be about 1000 millibars which is a couple of millibars lower than what I saw a couple of hours ago. And I will not be surprised to see intensity changes with Fay. The will probably be especially true since it looks like the center of Fay will continue to straddle the coast as it continues its trek westward.
The larger radar view showed that Fay was somewhat lopsided at this time. A large rain mass was located from the north through west side of the storm while the rain through the remaining quadrants was much more scattered. I’m sure we’ll continue to see this kind of structure change throughout the track across the Gulf Coast since storms like this are never steady state.
It still looks like South Alabama and Northwest Florida will see the heaviest rain from Fay. 2 to 5 inches will be possible across much of Alabama north of Clanton. So this will be a great event to continue to ease our drought issue. Since the deficit last year was so big, I don’t think this will bust the drought scene completely, but it should put a sizable dent in the overall conditions for us.
The future course of Fay is still questionable. It continues to look positive for a stall, but when exactly that will come is unknown. The stalling of the storm could change the outlook for rainfall amounts depending of if and when it occurs.
With some elements of uncertainty, it’s probably a wise idea to keep informed on what you can expect as we head into what is likely to be a fairly wet weekend, especially Sunday. Monday looks very wet, too. And I’m sure there will be more updates throughout the evening and overnight. We are just so darn dedicated!!!
-Brian-
