The National Weather Service in Mobile has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Northwestern Okaloosa County until 230pm. At 147 PM CST, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 9 miles east of I65 And AL 113 to 3 miles east of Orange Beach, moving east at 45 mph.

We are within a couple of hours of expected impact from the severe weather predicted to pass through our area.

“Now is the time to be off the roads”, said Patrick Maddox, Director of Public Safety for Okaloosa County. “Have plans in place and pay attention to weather alerts.”

The main squall line is continuing to steadily move East and will likely be clear of our entire area by 5pm. The main threat with the line will be damaging straight line winds, although an embedded tornado is still possible.

In addition, strong winds continue outside of the storms with numerous gusts of 35 to 45 mph being reported across the area. 

“The majority of tornado warnings have been North of our latitude so far”, said Maddox. “But I suspect some discreet cells may produce some for us as well. Escambia is currently under a severe thunderstorm warning which I suspect we will see as well.”