TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WBRC) – A WBRC On Your Side Safety Check during First Alert Weather Days as we are working to help keep you safe in this heat.

Doctors say when it’s hot like this, it’s dangerous and can even be deadly.

The heat is really on in Alabama, and it’s the kind of heat that cares not one bit who you are, what you do for a living, or where you’re from. Jerrell Bowden learned that the hard way.

“It felt really weird.. Like my whole body went like.. Kind of stopped,” said Jerrell Bowden, who works for the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT).

Bowden remembers it all too well, a case of heat exhaustion. It happened four years ago on the job during a period of stifling heat. Bowden, who works in ALDOT’s transportation and technology division, often works on the traffic signal team that replaces bulbs or new signage.

“My whole body just kind of sit down. I literally could not walk up four steps. I had to sit down and stop and one of the aides out there said ‘You don’t look good. Let me get you some water’,” said Bowden.

Within 15 minutes, Bowden says he began to feel like himself again.

UAB emergency physician Dr. Jeron Raper says this is the very thing he warns people about when the temperatures rise matched with suffocating humidity.

“Folks, think of heat exhaustion and heat exposure. It’s really a broad spectrum of disease. You can have heat stroke, which is really on the far end, and those are really sick patients that have evidence of changes in their mental status.. they’re confused, they may not be behaving normally,” said Dr. Raper.

It never got to that dangerous level for Bowden, but it scared him enough that he no longer short-changes the weather or pretends he can handle it. Bowden admitted he made a potentially deadly mistake on that job site four years ago.

“Next thing I knew.. Everything was locking up. What do I do with this,” said Bowden.

Today, Bowden has seen the light. He says part of his daily intake is water and a Squincher Squeenze for hydration.

“Yes, sir we have plenty of Gatorade and plenty of water,” said Bowden.

Bowden was among the lucky ones. According to Dr. Raper, anywhere from 700 to 1,500 die every year in the country from heat-related illnesses.

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By Jim Stefkovich, Meteorologist, Alabama Emergency Management Agency

CLANTON –Thursday, 12:00 pm, July 2, 2026

Similar to yesterday, models indicate widely scattered to scattered thunderstorms developing mainly across the northern half of the state this afternoon and continuing into the early evening hours.  Especially near and north of I-20, clusters of strong-to-severe thunderstorms are possible, with damaging wind gusts of 50-65 mph, hail, and torrential rain.  There is no tornado threat.   All precipitation will end across the state sometime between 9 pm and 12 am.

Hot and humid conditions will continue through at least next Tuesday, with highs in the 90s and lows only reaching the middle 70s.  Heat index values could reach 110-114 in a few spots in northern Alabama, with 100-110 across the rest of the state today.  From Friday through the holiday weekend, afternoon heat index values will generally range from 100 to 107.  The Heat Advisories will likely be extended into the weekend for northern and central Alabama.

Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Children and pets should NEVER be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances.

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Isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms are again forecast during the afternoons and evenings across the northern half of the state both Friday and Saturday, with scattered thunderstorms statewide from Sunday through at least next Tuesday.   A few storms each day could produce wind gusts from 40-60 mph and frequent lightning.

Since this is a holiday weekend with a lot of outdoor activity, make sure you remain weather aware.  If you hear thunder, you are most likely within range of being struck by lightning.  Don’t become a statistic!  When thunder roars, go indoors.

One of Greater Cincinnati’s first riverboat casinos sunk off the Alabama coast July 1.

Argosy VI was a four-level, 408-foot-long riverboat casino that operated in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, until 2009. The boat once held the title of the “world’s largest riverboat casino,” holding up to 4,407 people and over 1,700 slot machines.

The boat is now part of Alabama’s artificial reef system off the state’s Gulf Coast. The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources previously sunk a retired 271-foot coastal freighter in 2013 and a 250-foot former research vessel in 2018.

Watch the boat sink here: