Heading to the Flora-Bama Beaches? Heed This Weekend’s Warnings

Today marks the official first day of Summer in Louisiana and the rest of the northern hemisphere. For those who like to plan their lives down to the minute, summer will officially arrive in cities such as Lafayette, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lake Charles at 09:58 this morning. No, I have no idea how they determine that down the minute but the information was presented by people who are much smarter than me, so I will go along with them.

For a lot of Louisiana residents, the time between schools out and schools back in usually means at least a few days on the beaches of Lower Alabama and or the Florida Panhandle. If your beach trip is planned for this weekend. There are some risks you'll want to weigh and discuss with your family ahead of time.

First things first, it's been a rough week of weather along the Redneck Riviera as that part of the world is known. Some portions of Pensacola have reported 15 inches of rain in just a few hours which lead to some flooding in that city. The city of Mobile has reported flash flooding and there have been videos of tornadoes and waterspouts at popular beach destinations such as Sandestin, Destin, and further to the west along Mississippi's Gulf Coast. 

There does not appear to be an issue with severe storms shaping up again this weekend for beachgoers but the rip current forecast for the area is very high and very dangerous.

By the way, if you want the latest beach information for the Mobile/Pensacola area, there is a page dedicated to beach information on the National Weather Service site. It has not only rip current information and forecasts but details on the UV index at the beach and other important information you might want to know before allowing your family into the water.

You'll also want to keep your eyes peeled every afternoon for thunderstorms. Rain chances of 50% to 60% will be common for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the Mobile/Pensacola area. And as we saw earlier this week, some of those storms could spin up waterspouts and weak tornadoes which can really wreak havoc on beach chairs and umbrellas.