00:00Well, I tell you, the vibe has definitely changed than really the last 12 hours.
00:04You know, this morning, there was a lot of folks kind of still staying behind.
00:06And especially last night when we were a little bit further west into Dolphin Island,
00:09you really would have never even known a hurricane was headed this way.
00:13But this morning, the tune has definitely been changed.
00:15There's been a lot of evacuation orders and advisories issued really anywhere from Dolphin Island
00:20all the way to where I'm at here in Fort Walton Beach.
00:23And, you know, kind of along the beach line here, you can see how empty this is.
00:26This is still prime tourist season.
00:28So a lot of the folks are taking those preparations seriously.
00:30But we do have some folks that are down here still visiting the beach,
00:33getting kind of those final hours of normalness before the storm starts to approach.
00:37Because come tomorrow afternoon, conditions are really going to start to degrade
00:41before we potentially see a landfall tomorrow night or early into Saturday.
00:45And I've had multiple folks actually come up and talk to me,
00:48kind of asking me what they're, you know, what I'm expecting for the timing
00:51and the impacts are going to be because they're going to be heading out
00:53either early in the morning or tomorrow afternoon ahead of the storm
00:57to head back home much further inland.
01:00And Aaron, I know that we're going to have tropical tornado threats
01:02east of the storm track as we move forward in time.
01:05Some of that will be under the cover of darkness.
01:07So it's challenging to communicate all the different variety of hazards
01:10that this storm will bring.
01:11What are your plans after landfall?
01:15Well, honestly, Jeff, that's a really good question,
01:17because it's really going to depend on how exactly bad the storm surge ends up being,
01:22which is what I am currently targeting associated with this hurricane.
01:26Some of these areas can see anywhere from five to seven plus feet of storm surge
01:30before all is said and done.
01:31And a lot of the timing is going to depend on what it does to these roadways here.
01:36This is one of the most storm surge prone areas in the entire world.
01:39And if some of these dunes start to get washed away, we start running into roads washing away.
01:43And at that point, that's exactly why I come so prepared for these events,
01:46because there is the potential to be stranded for several days,
01:49really anywhere from Pensacola Beach all the way as far east as Panama City Beach
01:54to show you how widespread those impacts can be.
01:57They might not necessarily see the highest totals for the storm surge,
02:01but they still could see significant impacts.
02:03It's very easy to brush that off because the hurricane is so far west.
02:06Now, if I do manage to get out of there in time and the conditions aren't too terribly bad,
02:11I might start to target that nocturnal tornado threat.
02:13And the interesting thing about this, guys,
02:15is that this isn't just an isolated tornado threat associated with this tropical system.
02:19This could potentially be a tornado outbreak associated with this,
02:23because when you get that dry air to kind of punch around those outer bands,
02:27it can cause those storms to vent more.
02:29And there's so much wind shear and helicity, which are prime ingredients for tornadoes.
02:33And we call them, they're spinning rain showers.
02:36They don't really have any lightning associated with them.
02:38It is literally just a garden shower producing a tornado.
02:41So that's going to be something that we've kept a very close eye on,
02:43especially if this is a nighttime landfall,
02:45because there's not going to be much lightning associated with these storms,
02:48and you're not going to be able to see those tornadoes coming
02:50if they do come in the middle of the night.
02:52Good reminder there.
02:53Absolutely.
02:53Storm Chaser Aaron Riggs, be safe out there all weekend long.
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