Good afternoon everyone. Let’s dive into the short-range forecast and notice some concerns about the potential for heavy showers and thunderstorms across a large portion of the Midwest.
A strong low-pressure system, which will cause massive mountain snows throughout the Rockies tonight and tomorrow, will move into the Midwest and clash with much warmer and more humid air. This disparity in air masses, along with some shear in the upper layers of the atmosphere, will likely cause a severe weather outbreak on Wednesday.
Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin should all be closely monitoring this situation. While the Storm Prediction Center includes northeast Texas in its forecast, I believe the focus of the activity will be further north than the map released by the SPC today. That is not to suggest Texas will not see severe weather, but the focus of the energy will be further north.
From late Wednesday morning, we expect severe thunderstorms to develop, starting with scattered individual cells and clusters and progressing to a more broken or structured line that will move east, northeast, and southeast. The greatest threat will be severe winds, large hail, frequent lightning, heavy rain, and the possibility of some tornadoes.
