Good morning, this is your surf zone forecast for the Florida panhandle beaches brought to you by the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.

We're starting off this Friday with patchy dense fog early on, but don't worry, it'll burn off as we head into a beautiful sunny and dry day. Inland areas will see highs well into the eighties, but if you're heading to the coast, pack a light jacket because beach highs will only reach the lower seventies.

Looking at the rip current situation, we've got a medium chance of high rip current risk for Franklin and Southern Gulf County beaches this weekend, so swimmers and surfers in those areas need to stay alert. Further west, there's a low chance of high rip current risk for Bay and Walton County beaches on Sunday.

Let me break down what's happening at specific beach locations:

Down in South Walton, including Sandestin and Santa Rosa Beach, today brings moderate rip currents with surf around one foot. It'll be partly sunny until two in the afternoon, then sunny, with highs in the lower seventies. Water temperature is a refreshing seventy degrees. Winds will be light out of the northwest at first, then shifting southwest in the afternoon. Saturday looks fantastic with sunny skies and moderate rip currents, but it'll get breezy with northeast winds gusting twenty to five miles per hour, and surf bumping up to around two feet.

Over at Coastal Bay, including Panama City Beach, we're looking at the same great conditions today with moderate rip currents, one foot surf, and highs in the lower seventies. Saturday will also bring sunny skies with that breezy northeast wind and two foot surf. The water temperature is a nice sixty nine degrees.

The Coastal Gulf area, including Saint Joe Beach, will be mostly cloudy until one in the afternoon, then mostly sunny. You'll see moderate rip currents across all beach aspects today with one foot surf, and highs in the mid seventies. Saturday turns sunny with moderate rip currents and south facing beaches picking up two foot waves while other areas see one foot surf.

Heading to Coastal Franklin near Apalachicola, today features moderate rip currents, one foot surf, and mostly sunny skies developing by afternoon with highs in the mid seventies. Saturday will be sunny with moderate rip currents and surf jumping to around two feet.

Now for the extended outlook, the weekend weather stays sunny and dry with beach highs around seventy. By Sunday, watch out because Franklin and Gulf County beaches are expecting high rip current risk, which means life threatening rip currents are likely in the surf zone. That high risk continues into Monday before moderating back to moderate risk by Tuesday.

Overall, UV index values are very high across all beaches, so sunscreen is a must. Sunrise is around seven thirty four to seven thirty nine, with sunset around seven fifty five to eight oh one depending on your location.

So grab your sunscreen, keep an eye on those rip currents, especially

This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.