Alabama is cleaning up after the arrival of Tropical Storm Fred.
Forecasters are also looking ahead to Tropical Storm Grace and the rest of the 2021 season. Fred is expected to move across eastern Alabama and into northwest Georgia as a tropical depression. The Gulf coast and inland Alabama counties north of the Florida panhandle spent the weekend on alert as Fred made its way up the Gulf of Mexico.
Jason Beaman is with the National Weather Center in Mobile. He said this brush with Tropical Storm Fred is a reminder to watch out for what a major storm can do.
“I think for a lot of people it really is the extended power outages," Beaman said. "I think in our minds we prepare, I think we plan for a day or two, of no power. But, if we get a significant storm, I think a lot of people don’t take that into consideration.”
A different system, named Grace, is making its way across the southern Gulf of Mexico. Even if that system keeps moving west, as some predict, the latest storm to enter the Gulf could still affect the Alabama coast.
Jenni Guerry is deputy director of the Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency.
"Any time we have a disturbance in the Gulf, any sort of tropical weather that enters into the Gulf of Mexico, we’ll almost always result in rip current impacts and we will have coastal impacts such as the high rip current risk and the high surf advisories," Guerry said.
Guerry said that even if Grace stays to the south as predicted, officials will still be watching its path.
"We are monitoring Grace and based on the track that we see at this time, we do expect to see impacts in the Gulf of Mexico in the coming days," she said.