Subtropical Depression Alberto bringing plenty of rain to the Carolinas

Alberto is expected to make landfall Monday in the Florida Panhandle.

While Alberto nears the shore, the warning area has been scaled back from the Suwannee River back west to the Florida-Alabama state line.

A Tropical Storm Warning means tropical storm conditions are expected with winds sustained at 39 miles per hour or greater. A storm surge watch has been posted from the river to Mexico Beach, Florida.

Forecasters had feared the storm could bring unsafe high water to southern coastal states and possible tornadoes.

Breaking landfall today the storm has been seen rushing over the southeast of the US, whipping strong winds across the coast.

Heavy rainfall leading to flash flooding is occurring over parts of the Florida panhandle.

Remnants of Alberto will have moved northeast of us, but rain chances will remain as another disturbance rolls through the area.

Alberto is expected to bring widespread showers and thunderstorms to the Midstate on Tuesday. On the forecast track, the center of Alberto will move over Alabama later tonight and early Tuesday.

Although it will be drier rain-wise, the humidity will be inching upward, which means heat indices will climb to near 100 degrees Tuesday afternoon. “This is definitely a unsafe storm”, said David Roth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Unfortunately for Apalachicola, the maximum storm surge should arrive at this morning’s high tide, resulting in a total water level roughly 3.4 feet above the normal high tide.

Hurricane season doesn’t formally start until June 1.

“If you are planning to travel on Monday (Memorial Day) the combination of severe weather and heavy traffic conditions could prove hazardous”. There is a heightened mudslide/rockslide threat in the mountains of western NC, as excessive rain has been the story over the last 7 to 10 days. It is still a subtropical storm, meaning that it does not have all of the characteristics of a purely tropical system and is more of a hybrid cyclone.

The NWS said rains in Cuba could produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides. The U.S. Golf Association canceled a practice round of the U.S. Women’s Open Championship, being played at Shoal Creek, because of the weather and Alabama Power Co. said about 20,000 homes and businesses were without electricity Tuesday, most in the Birmingham area.

Picking up windspeed of up to 45 miles per hour, the storm gradually subsiding to 12 miles per hour as it headed northeast inland, according to the National Hurricane Centre.