Heavy downpours, lighting and uptick in winds begin this afternoon

Ahead of tomorrow’s storm, local officials are bracing for the potential of downed trees, power outages and localized flooding.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla - Recent sunsets have taken on an extra vibrant hues from a scarlet color palette due to African dust. Viewers sent photos on Storm Pins showing vivid skies over Palatka, Palm Valley and even Atlanta saw red sunsets. A plume of Saharan dust traveled across the tropical North Atlantic Oceanlast week and settled across the Gulf from Texas to Florida. The Saharan Air Layer extends between 5,000 and 20,000 feet in the atmosphere. The good part of the SAL is it often suppresses hurricane and tropical storm development.

Seriously, what is this wacky alien-looking thing shown above? Some pretty crazy mushrooms and other fungus have started popping up all over the place: even in people's yards or in other areas of their property. In Michigan, one suburb seems to see morel mushrooms in many backyards -- but "they always seem to come as a surprise," Metro Detroit resident Lisa Ortlieb said. Viewer photo from Royal Oak, MichiganThe colorful photo above was submitted by a viewer, as well. Do you have any cool or "wacky" fungus photos?