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Gulf Coast Impacts From Gordon

| September 4, 2018 @ 9:30 am

As Gordon continues to make the approach to the central Gulf Coast, we will take a quick look on what to expect along the shores of eastern Louisiana to the Florida panhandle, including Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.

Starting this afternoon, conditions will begin to deteriorate along the central Gulf Coast as the surf will continue to get rough and the risks of life-threatening rip currents increase.


An expected storm surge of 3-5 feet is possible on the coast of Mobile County (including Dauphin Island) and westward along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and into the northern half of Lake Borgne, Louisiana. A lesser storm surge of 2-4 feet is expected for Mobile Bay and eastward including Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and into western Florida over to Pensacola and Gulf Breeze, along with the shoreline south of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.


Winds will begin to get stronger throughout the day, with maximum sustained winds topping out at 20-40 MPH starting in the late afternoon and through the late night hours from Orange beach to Dauphin Island, with a few gusts possibly reaching 75 MPH. Winds will be stronger as you move farther west along the coast until you reach where the center comes ashore (expected landfall at this point is around Bay St. Louis and Gulfport, Mississippi).


Heavy rainfall will be expected with Gordon, and Flash Flood Watches have been issued for all of Mobile, Baldwin, Escambia, and Washington Counties, and over into southern Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. Rainfall totals of 3-6 inches are expected, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few localized totals reach even higher.


All of the Gulf Coast from Panama City Beach back to the west to Gulfport is under a slight risk for severe storms through the remainder of today and into the predawn hours on Wednesday due to Gordon, while the rest of western Florida, and a good chunk of South Alabama and the southeastern parts of Mississippi are defined in a marginal risk. The main threat will be from possible damaging wind gusts, but there will also be a threat of a few isolated tornadoes and waterspouts through this afternoon and well into tonight.


The good news is that the weather along the Gulf Coast will improve greatly throughout the morning hours on Wednesday due to the quick forward motion of Gordon. We’ll get back to the normal summertime forecast for the remainder of the week with a good bit of sunshine and the typical chance of a scattered afternoon shower/storm.

I’ll have an update post out in a few minutes about the impacts on Central Alabama from Tropical Storm Gordon. Keep checking back with AlabamaWx.com throughout the day as we’ll continue to have updates on this developing situation.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS

About the Author ()

Scott Martin is an operational meteorologist, professional graphic artist, musician, husband, and father. Not only is Scott a member of the National Weather Association, but he is also the Central Alabama Chapter of the NWA president. Scott is also the co-founder of Racecast Weather, which provides forecasts for many racing series across the USA. He also supplies forecasts for the BassMaster Elite Series events including the BassMaster Classic.

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