Moderate Risk for severe weather across the Plains

Severe weather is expected from the Red River Valley through the Ozarks and into the Tennessee valley.  Large to giant hail, widespread severe wind gusts and Tornadoes are anticipated.

A mid-level trough is moving into the northern Plains and will continue to advance eastward.  The trough should reach the upper Mississippi and Missouri Valleys by tonight.  This trough will bring several smaller disturbances across the Plains and mid to upper Mississippi Valley today.

In the western portions of the risk area, from Central and Eastern Oklahoma as well as northern Texas, there will be strong capping in place.  That cap will prevent storms from forming earlier in the day but as lifting forces increase throughout the afternoon, some storms will form and develop rapidly due to favorable profiles.   The overall risk is lower from the Red River Valley up into Northeastern Oklahoma due to this cap, which will allow the cold front to form a line of storms, but any supercells that form before the passage of the front has the potential to be dangerous.  Strong tornadoes and giant hail are risks in these supercells, though the risk becomes more limited the further south you go into Texas.

Further north and east, The potential exists for a swath of damaging wind gusts to occur from eastern Kansas to the mid Mississippi Valley this afternoon and evening.  There are some questions about the development of storms along an outflow boundary this morning from the current storms taking place.  Additional storms this morning would help limit the risk in this area, but capping over the area is expected to keep the number of early morning storms low and keep the risk higher this evening.  Do not be surprised if the Storm Prediction Center puts out an area of high risk later on this morning if only small amounts of convection form and a better location for the deep convection is ascertained.

This convection will all begin to take a linear form as the cold front continues to push east and a convective complex is possible along the cold and warm front that’s will be in the region.  This will approach the Mississippi Valley this evening and into tonight.

Rob