Fred makes landfall, brushes southeast Alabama

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Tropical Storm Fred has splashed ashore - it made landfall this afternoon near Cape San Blas, Florida. It’s now moving to the north, and an eventual turn to the northeast will occur later this evening.

Heavy rain is falling across much of east and southeast Alabama tonight. Wind gusts of 40-45 mph have been reported at Dothan Regional Airport, along with torrential rain and isolated flooding across much of the Wiregrass.

Rainfall of 1-2″ is likely along and east of US 231, with up to 4″ possible in isolated pockets along the Georgia border. This could create isolated issues with flash flooding.

We’ll mention a very, very low risk of a brief tornado in the far southeastern corner of the state. For most of Alabama, the tornado risk is near zero.

For Montgomery and points north/west, there will be little to no impact from Fred - just a breezy evening with occasional showers.

The system will be to our north by the mid-morning hours tomorrow, ending any sort of threat for rain and wind. In fact, we’re looking at a partly cloudy Tuesday afternoon with just an isolated shower or storm. Highs will be in the upper 80s.

Then it’s back to our typical August pattern here in Central Alabama -- highs in the 90s, muggy conditions and daily chances for isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms.

The chance of rain does look to drop by the weekend, but exact rain chances will probably change at least a touch as we progress through the workweek.

We do have two other systems out there to watch closely, though. Tropical Depression Grace is in the Caribbean and will move into the southern Gulf of Mexico next week. It doesn’t look like it will curve toward Alabama and Florida, but we’ll watch it.

Tropical Storm Henri has formed near Bermuda, it does not seem like a threat to the United States at this time.

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