Severe weather now will lead to more tomorrow

There have been quite a few severe storms this evening, from Indiana to Texas, including super cells with detected tornadoes and very large hail. St. Louis was in a tornado warning, and some suburbs saw 2″ diameter hail. There had been a moderate risk for severe weather over Oklahoma that has since been allowed to transition to an enhanced risk, but again, tomorrow, we are looking at a moderate risk, with the bullseye over a different “o” state – Ohio.

It’s absolutely severe season now, so this shouldn’t be a surprise. Be weather aware throughout the Buckeye State and even points south to the Florida Panhandle. Strong, long lived tornadoes are most likely, however, in that red shaded areas.

This warning is pointed the wrong way

As we learned from our last update, today is the only day to be concerned with rain in the Tampa area. To the north off the coast from Cedar Key, the NWS has issued a Marine Warning that looks strange.

Polygons usually expand through the expected storm motion to account for the potential variability of the track. Instead, this one narrows around the storm motion. That’s just a backwards polygon is what that is.

At this point, most of the precipitation in southern Minnesota is falling as rain, and even then, there is a dry slot right over the Twin Cities metro area that isn’t being picked up well by models. Right now, the NAM model has among the better solutions, but the best bet is looking at the short range models. One thing all of them are consistent on is a reformed area of low pressure and another blast of nasty, and this time windy, conditions overnight.

Heavy snow band setting up in southern MN

A band of very heavy snow is presently just north of the Iowa border in Minnesota. At Austin, they are reporting some thunder along with the snow, indicating the rapid rate that the precipitation is falling, and the energy in the system. The change to rain keeps moving up in the forecast though, and will be chasing this heavy band, and we still await confirmation on how much snow we will see

I’ve earned this

How many times have I mentioned that warm weather keeps continuing in the middle of the country, and we are looking more and more like we are getting out of winter without much, if any more snow? Naturally, that has invited this 72 hour accumulation forecast, which will only fill in in the Upper Midwest as the forecast period moves toward the weekend.